The Taste of Salt
by Shinigami 42-42-564
Summary: Syaoran, a troubled boy; Eriol, a bullied genius; Sakura, a beautiful girl who is supposed to only live until her graduation. When these three lives intermingle, a life lesson of not wasting a single breath and living life to its fullest is taught. Enemies learn to love each other and two boys try to capture the heart of one girl before her time is up. This is their story.
1. Chapter 1

**Summary:** Eriol, a prodigy in the making who is always bullied; Syaoran, a transfer student from China with a troubled past and no friends; and Sakura, a beautiful girl full of nothing but optimism and always half full rather than half empty. As if life wasn't hard enough, when their lives intermingle and two boys fall for a girl, who's only supposed to live until her graduation . . . well, this is their story.

**a/n:** Hi everyone. I'm not the original owner of this account, just his friend. I'm the author of "The Howling Wolf in Cherry Storms", so I'm back! I just thought about this story a while back and always wanted to write it. So~ here it is. I hope you enjoy!

* * *

By: Shinigami 42-42-564's Friend

_December 23, 2010_

_Sakura (9:29pm): Just getting ready for bed. You?_

_You (9:30pm): You sleep early! I'm having a late night snack. Tastes yummy._

_Sakura (9:31pm): xD lucky. I want some! All I ever taste at night is salt._

_You (9:33pm): Salt? Why're you eating salt -_-?_

_Sakura (9:35pm): No silly, I don't eat salt :P I just cry a lot . . . that's all . . ._

_Sakura (9:35pm): Ahhh, sorry, ignore that last one xD_

_You (9:39pm): . . . you cry a lot when you go to sleep? Are you okay?_

_Sakura (9:40pm): xD ahahaha I said ignore what I said! Lols. But I'm going to go to sleep now. So I'll ttyl okay? :D Goodnight, Syaoran!_

_You (9:41pm) Oh . . . okay then . . . goodnight I guess. Sweet dreams . . ._

_Sakura (1:03am): Syaoran . . . are you still awake?_

_You (1:09am): Yeah, what's up? You're still up?_

_Sakura (1:10am): xD hehe Yeah!_

_Sakura (1:12am): Hey . . . can I . . . call you?_

_You (1:15am): Call me? Sure._

That was the first time we've ever talked on the phone; the first time that I really began to _click_ with her, and the first time we've ever had a heart-to-heart. It wasn't always like that though. In fact, when I first met her, I thought she was a little bit of an oddball. She seemed to be the most stupid, weird person I've ever met.

_Princess of Tomoeda Academy_, was what some people called her. I thought, "Wow," I transfer from China to come to a maniacal place like this? She was like a brat. A little baby brat that got everything she ever wanted.

How was I going to enjoy this? That's what I complained to myself about. But then when I was told about her health problem . . . well . . . this is her story . . . this is also his story . . . and my story . . .

It started as two kids just trying to capture the heart of one girl before her time was up; and how it ended, this is our story.

**The Taste of Salt**

_September 13, 2010_

The pieces fit. The rebuilding process was complete. In my hand I held a glass music box. Scratches and scars everywhere on it like a broken glass. It didn't work anymore, but I wasn't rebuilding it for the music again. I was rebuilding it for something else. Something that I desperately wanted. But I couldn't remember. Inside the music box was a little glass ballerina standing on one toe with her hands above her head. It was supposed to spin slowly as music played. But it didn't.

Anger overwhelmed me quickly and once again, I held in a cry and threw it against my bedroom wall. It shattered into many pieces, but I didn't care.

I was entering a week late. My flight to Tomoeda, Japan was held back. Why? Some technical difficulties they said. Regardless, I ended up flying alone, living alone, and going to school alone. My mother moved me to Japan to finish my school here. I was in my second year, so I was stuck living on my own for a couple years.

At least she gave me a nice place. My new home was a luxury apartment. It was forty stories high and I lived on the thirty-seventh floor. From the balcony, I was able to see nearly all of Tomoeda. The horizon was the limit. I had three bedroom; why? No idea.

My first day of school was supposed to be eight days ago, but I hadn't gone yet. Today would be my first. Outside the door to my apartment, each level was on a catwalk that faced a giant rotunda. All I had to do was walked about five steps in front of my door, look over the four-foot ledge and stare down at a thirty-seven floor fall to death. Sadly, the elevator was on the complete opposite side. Stairs weren't worth taking.

The bus ride took half an hour. Then I had to walk twenty minutes until the gates to Tomoeda Academy appeared. The school was one of the best Tomoeda had. Not the best, but one of. The school was five stories high and was probably about as big as a football stadium.

"Li Syaoran-kun, I presume," said a man said as I entered what I thought was the school's office. He was a lot taller than me and his hair was sharp and light brown. "I hear your flight was delayed."

I nodded. "Yea, sorry about that. I just landed yesterday."

He laughed. "No worried. I'm Yoshiyuki. Terada Yoshiyuki. I'm your homeroom teacher for the semester."

"Oh," I bowed. "Nice to meet you."

"Our class is class 2-B. Come on, I'll show you. We're just about to start."

"Oh . . . okay."

I followed him. Only a minute left before class and there were still kids wandering the hallway. To my right were doors of other classes. We were on the second floor. To my left were windows leading out to the track and field. Girls wore black skirts with a white dressy shirt with a black uniformed sweat. Red-white neckerchiefs as well. Guys, like me, had black slacks and . . . that was it. Everything else was the same.

When we got to my class, class 2-B, everyone scurried to their seats. I followed Terada to the front of the class and looked about towards everyone.

"We have a new student. Li Syaoran-kun," Terada said.

"Nice to meet you." I forced out and bowed. That's all I said. Everyone stared at me.

"There's a seat next to the window in the far back if you'd like."

The school was kind of in a large and very thick U shape. So the typical _anime_ seat I got by the window lead out to the schools grounds. I guess it was like a "hangout" area. A courtyard I guess. There were several large cherry blossom trees out in the yard with benches all over. Grass as green as possible with marble uneven flooring trailing in random spots.

The bottom of the U of our school was the south end—which is also where the main school gate is. I was in the middle of the west side. The top where the U split was the north. But on each level, there were skywalks that connected both the east and west side of the school. Each skywalk also connected to each other, giving easy access to each level. Each skywalk had a roof, but the sides were nothing but heavy glass railings preventing falls.

It must be cold crossing those during the winter.

When I took my seat, the next thing I noticed was the kid in front of me; probably my height—maybe a bit smaller. He had round and thick glasses and what I like to call a nerd-cut. He was not as attentive as other students. All he did was dig into some sort of textbook and wrote things down.

The rest of class before lunch wasn't much to talk about. I'd probably bore you to death the way I was. But in the hallways, I had my first incident. Already huh? Yes, already.

Right as I got out of the door from my class, someone ran into me and fell to the ground. Papers scattering everywhere. I almost took a tumble, but I managed to keep my footing. The person who fell was the person who sat in front of me. In front of him were two other boys in my grade, snickering and laughing at him. Then I realized that he the boy on the floor was actually pushed into me.

Harsh. We only just got out of class too.

"Aww, my bad Eriol-chan, I didn't see you," one of the guys said—_sarcastically_.

"I—it's okay," said the boy on the ground—Eriol.

_Did he just really answer that?_ I thought. No wonder poor kid was being picked on.

"Look that this," said the other boy. He held up a paper he picked off from the ground. "It's only a week into the new year and he's already trying so hard. Two full double-sided pages of notes . . . lame." He then ripped the paper. The two boys snickered again.

There was a small crowd. But some people didn't really bother as if this was a typical thing that happened often.

"Hey, come on guys!" Another voice yelled. A girl, maybe my height, squeezed through the two boys and knelt next to Eriol. "Eriol-kun, are you okay?"

"Y—yes, Sakura-chan."

The girl, Sakura, had light brown pigtailed hair. What got me the most about her was that she had green eyes. Amazing green eyes.

"You two have to stop picking on Eriol-kun so much," said Sakura said as she turned to the two boys. "It's rude, y'know!"

One of the boys chuckled and said, "Aww come one Sakura-san, we're just—" His partner elbowed him quite hard in the side. "—I mean . . . we're sorry."

"Catch ya next time, Eriol," said the two who elbowed the other and then gave a wink to him. They turned to leave and that was that. Everyone else began to disperse and Sakura helped Eriol pick up his papers.

I was out too. Ignoring the two on the floor, I walked past them in hopes of getting some fresh air for the lunch break. I managed a few steps past them before I heard a,

"Hey!"

I grunted. It sounded like it was directed at me. I turned and saw that girl, Sakura, walk up to me. She picked up a sheet of paper from my feet and examined it. It was a little dirty. A footprint, but nothing too bad.

"Apologize!" she demanded.

I instantly shook my head. Not in a sense of saying, 'no' but more like, "Wait what?"

"You heard me," she said, "apologize to Eriol-kun for stepping on his paper! Wait . . . you're new aren't you? Anyways, apologize!"

This girl was ridiculous. "No!," I said, "I'm not going to!"

"You have to!"

"No way, you didn't make those other two apologize!"

"Do it!"

"No!"

"_Do it!_"

I finally got irritated. First day of school and my lunch break is being hindered by asinine situations. I inched a bit closer, pretty mad that she wouldn't leave me alone, and said,

"Drop dead, girl. I ain't apologizing."

Sakura didn't say anything back. Just the way I wanted it to be. Instead, she stared at me like she was searching into my soul or something. After a _hmph_, I turned to leave. After just two more steps—literally—I hear another, "Hey!" I was screaming in my head. Can't they just leave me alone?

I turned. "What now—" as I finished my rotation, the boy, Eriol, was nearly nose-to-nose with me. I flinched back a step, surprised at this action.

"Don't say that to Sakura-chan! Take that back! Apologize!" he demanded. He even swung his arms across his body.

I slapped my head. This was getting really ridiculous. "Hey kid," I started, "you already have two guys pushing you around . . . let's not make it three, alright?"

Eriol hesitated for some reason . . . it was like he was scared. "You . . . you . . . you _idiot!_ You should go to hell—"

"No!" Sakura screamed. Eriol turned around. This time, Sakura was with a smile instead of her _seeing into my soul_ look.

Eriol cupped his mouth. "Oh . . . no, I'm sorry—"

"No, no. It's okay." She giggled. "Come on, let's just finish picking up your paper and go eat."

"Oh . . . okay." Eriol didn't say anything else to me, but he gave me a leer before going back to picking up his paper.

Just like that, it was as if they've never even talked to me. I left them to their cleaning and turned and finally left.

I didn't care for lunch. I lost my appetite. Instead, I went to the courtyard where it was surprisingly quiet and slept on a bench under a cherry blossom tree. My sleep was quiet . . . it was nice. The wind blew very soft and cool.

Just as I was about to fall asleep—or maybe I did—I saw a flash in my mind. Blood ran down my hands. A girl . . .

A shadow covered me. I woke to see a girl in the school's uniform looking over me. She had long black hair and very innocent eyes.

"Li . . . kun, right? You're the new transfer student," she said.

I got up to a seating position. "Yeah?"

"Oh." She fiddled with her thumbs.

Why would a girl approach me all of a sudden? Did she like me? This would've been awkward if she did.

"I'm Tomoyo . . . Daidouji Tomoyo."

I nodded. "Okay, that's nice to know. Can I do something for you?"

She fumbled looking for words. "Please be nice to Sakura-chan!"

I flinched back. "Haaah? This again? What is with you people here?"

I wasn't going to have any of this. I got up and immediately turned around. But like before, I was halted at the sound of a voice,

"Wait, please," said Tomoyo. I turned with a sigh. "The truth is . . . since you're new; I might as well tell you the truth."

_The truth_ got my attention. "What truth?"

"It's something that everyone in the school knows. Since you're new, I just thought I'd fill you in so that you know as well. Sakura-chan has . . . this illness."

"And I should care, why?"

"She . . . only has until her last year of high school to live . . ."

I remember that day perfectly. After Tomoyo told me that, I laughed hysterically. Just another perk to boost up the fame of this _Princess_ title that Sakura held. I didn't believe a single word of it. But as I looked at Tomoyo, she didn't seem to enjoy the laugh that I did. In fact, she seemed almost hurt . . . hurt that I was laughing at this person who was supposed to die sometime next year.

Suddenly after my laughter I felt my heart start to ache. I didn't make any sudden movement, but it hurt. I got quiet. An image of blood and that same girl in my short dream I had on the bench flashed in my head again. Death . . .

Whether or not Tomoyo was telling the truth . . . laughing at death . . . it panged me.

That night, after I got home from school, I went straight to my tatami. I still had broken glass on the floor, but I didn't care. I left it the way it was. I didn't want to rebuild it again, not this time. I lied in my bed and closed my eyes.

Death . . .

Death . . .

It wasn't funny. Before I knew it, tears crawled down my face and to the side of my ears. The girl with blood on my hands kept flashing back and forwards over and over again like a never-ending replay. The sudden emotional pain was so unbearable that I started twitching in my own spot. After about a minute of moping around, I got up, pushed together all the glass shards, grabbed my superglue and started to rebuild.

* * *

_End, chapter one._


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary:** Eriol, a prodigy in the making who is always bullied; Syaoran, a transfer student from China with a troubled past and no friends; and Sakura, a beautiful girl full of nothing but optimism and always half full rather than half empty. As if life wasn't hard enough, when their lives intermingle and two boys fall for a girl, who's only supposed to live until her graduation . . . well, this is their story.

**a/n:** Thank you for your support in the first chapter. I hope you enjoy this one as well :)

By: Shinigami 42-42-564's Friend

_September 14, 2010_

Again . . . shards of glass on the floor. The last thing I remember from the other night was being in rage once again. Anger, sorrow, melancholy . . . I wanted to know, but I couldn't remember. Why couldn't I remember? It wasn't fair. I just want to be able to remember what happened. That girl, the blood—

After meeting Tomoyo, I didn't bother finishing school that day. I couldn't take anything else in. I was already a week late and now I only attended half of my first day of school. How amazing was that, huh? Pretty amazing I tell you.

I went to school about an hour early. I wanted to enjoy the view from the third floor skywalk. It was beautiful looking out into the north. I could see everything in Tomoeda . . . especially the Tomoeda tower—but I guess you could see that from anywhere in the city.

Tomoeda was a fairly large city. Not quite as big as Tokyo, but it could come close. I haven't gotten a chance to really look around the city yet, but I was hoping to do it soon.

Looking down to the south into the courtyard, I eyed the bench under the cherry blossom tree that I slept on before Tomoyo approached me. "She only has until her last year of high school to live," I remember her saying. Was she really telling me the truth? Or was she just trying to get me to become a slave for that girl?

I shook my head. It was all just a set-up! But then . . . Tomoyo cried after I began laughing about what she had said. Death . . . death . . . death . . . it wasn't funny. I glowered.

"Guess I'll just have to see for myself eventually," I murmured to myself. "This school's weird."

With about ten minutes left, I made my way back down to my class on the second level and took my seat. A few minutes later, that kid, Eriol, came to take his seat—but he didn't do it before giving me the nastiest look a nerd could get. His thick glasses reminded me of that British novel, Harry Potter.

I looked out the window. I didn't want to see him either. What luck though, "Having to be sitting behind him this whole semester."

"What did you say?" Eriol exclaimed as he turned around with fury in his eyes.

Crap, did I say that out loud? "You heard me, kid." I gave him a glare. This time, he seemed to hesitate for a second. I expected him to say something back to me, but all he did was spin back around like he was afraid of me. _That was easy_, I thought.

When Terada came in, he greeted the class and immediately started writing something on the chalk board. When he turned, there was a, "Opening Day Festival" written on it.

"As you all know," started the sensei, "next weekend in our Opening Day Festival. But there are two things we need to do before we can prepare for that. One, is to choose a class president. Anyone want to volunteer?"

None, no one wanted to raise their hands.

"Anyone want to elect a candidate?" Terada asked.

After a moment of silence, someone, a boy, said, "Just let Eriol be class president. He's always it anyway."

I could see Eriol glower and sink into his desk in front of me. I lined my eyebrows towards him. This guy's weird. Does he really not have any confidence to be a class president? I guess I shouldn't really be talking. I have no idea what this class president thin even is.

"Yeah, just let him," another person yelled.

"No one else is going to volunteer," another.

I stared around the class. Wow, this kid really gets picked on quite a bit. I was impressed.

The chair in front of me bumped into my desk and Eriol got up. He slowly, and unwillingly, made his way to the front of the class. I didn't like the guy, but something told me that I should feel sorry for him.

"A—alright. I'll be class president," he said. I expected an applaud, but there was none.

Terada nodded. "Okay then. Eriol-kun is our president. Now the second part is where the fun is: the ones who will be deciding the theme of this festival is between the second years, you guys, and the third years. If you guys remember last year when you were first years, the first years will be the ones to sit back and see what kind of festival you guys can do."

A student raised her hand. "How will we decide who gets to choose the theme?"

"A game of baseball," said Terada.

The whole class replied with a, _"Huh?"_ Even Eriol looked confused.

"The class presidents from each class from second and third years will manage and create a baseball team using students and friends from their respected grades. Presidents can't be a part of the active roster, but they can manage it."

A baseball game huh? Baseball wasn't really a big thing back in China. I was wondering if it was a big thing here. From the look of Eriol, though, he didn't seem so confident. I was wondering if anyone would've even wanted to participate in this thing . . . especially with _him_ running things. But I guess he'll have other class presidents with him as well.

During the lunch break, I didn't go to the courtyard to rest my head again. Instead, I made my way to the cafeteria to get something to eat. Really though, I felt like a loner. I didn't know anyone and I really didn't care to know anyone. But sadly, just as I got to the cafeteria, I reached into my pockets and frowned. I didn't bring any money.

"What a drag . . ."I said to myself.

I wandered the halls aimlessly. Needed time to kill. For a moment I really thought about what my life was going to be like if I had to live here for the next two years. If it was going to continue being like this, I think I'd kill myself.

I was making my way to class so I could just rest my head, but then the class of 2-D took my attention—a class just a couple doors down the hall closer to the south end. I peeked into the half-empty classroom. Mini groups were laughing and having a good time. Other mini groups were eating their bentos. But what struck my attention was the three weirdoes from yesterday. Eriol, the kid from my class—our class president—that Sakura girl . . . and the other girl: Tomoyo.

Then it hit me . . . about what Tomoyo said to me. Then I thought about what I said to Sakura . . . "_Drop dead, girl._" I chuckled to myself. If what Tomoyo said was true, then what I said to Sakura was pretty brutal. I felt kind of bad . . . guess it's not really the best way to give out first impressions. Regardless, I stepped into the room with hands in my pocket almost as if I was relentlessly forcing myself to go in. I wanted out.

When I approached the three, Eriol quickly gave me another death-stare. I guess I couldn't really expected anything less. Sakura saw Eriol's face and turned to see me. She smiled—surprisingly—and Tomoyo looked as if she was surprised, but not angry, to see me.

"Oh, Li-kun! What a pleasant surprise," said Tomoyo.

I looked at Eriol, who wanted me to die, I'm sure. "He doesn't think so."

"What do you want?" He blasted with a fist. I tried not to look at him.

But I did turn my attention to Sakura. "Hey . . . look. About what I said—"

"Don't you even dare talk to her!" Eriol screamed—very animated by the way.

"I'm trying to say something here kid, shut up!" I finally screamed back with a fist in the air—just as animated.

"I'm not a kid! I'm in the same grade as you!"

"Ladies, ladies!" Tomoyo held her hands out in front of us. She cleared her throat and said, "You were saying, Li-kun?"

"As I was saying," I returned to Sakura, "about what I said . . . I'm sorry." For some reason . . . it felt really uncomfortable for me to say that. It wasn't like I had anything against her or anything.

"It's okay!"

Eriol and I looked at Sakura with the same surprised look.

"_Huh_? I said.

Sakura smiled. "Your apology has been accepted!"

"O—oh . . ."

"You _are_ new right? I'm Kinomoto Sakura—these two are my friends, Daidouji Tomoyo and—"

"Yeah, we don't need to get to him." I quickly cut in before she got to Eriol.

"Why you—"

"Anyways, that's all I came here to do, so see ya!" I turned to leave, but then again I hear a,

"Neh, Syaoran-kun!"

I stopped. "Hmm?"

"I don't think he deserves you calling his first name," complained Eriol.

This guy was really starting to get on my nerves. No wonder he gets picked on a lot.

"Are you going to do anything after school?" Sakura asked.

I thought about it for a moment. "N—no . . ."

"Want to come window shopping with us then?"

Eriol's jaw dropped. "_What_?" he exclaimed. Honestly though, I couldn't have agreed more.

I made a face. "Huh?"

"You heard me," Sakura smiled, "come on! You don't really know anyone so might as well come hang out with us, right?"

"You're not really gonna make me go with you," I said.

Sakura cocked her head. "I'm not making you. I'm just asking."

I looked at Tomoyo. She hadn't said a word but she was smiling as if she knew that I was going to say _yes_ or something. Eriol, on the other hand, was obviously hoping for the opposite. This was sudden though. I didn't really register things correctly . . . or did I? The girl I just met and told to drop dead was asking me to go with them to . . . _window shop_. Who goes window shopping?

I turned around. "No, I'm good," I said.

**The Taste of Salt**

I ended up going. _This was pathetic_, I thought. From the looks of Eriol, as the four of us strolled in the downtown of Tomoeda, he agreed as well. So there we are, pacing ourselves. I walked beside the right side of Tomoyo, Eriol had the other side, and Sakura took the lead.

Downtown Tomoeda was a lot bigger than I thought. In Hong Kong, our streets were flooded—almost unable to walk anywhere. But here, it was about just as big . . . but with not as much people. Still a lot, but I could run around if I wanted to.

We traveled alongside a strip; passing by windows, entering shops to just look at things. Other than me enjoying the sight, the _window shopping_ part of it was pretty boring. Sakura, though, seemed to have enjoyed it. I must've been pretty lonely to have decided to come last minute. Ugh.

We crossed a fairly large intersection with a group of people. I looked up and saw nothing but four giant buildings on each of the corners of the intersection covering the sky. In fact, it wasn't just the corners. Giant buildings were standing shoulder-to-shoulder, connected, to one another for blocked beyond blocks. I was amazed. Awed.

Tomoeda . . . wasn't bad.

Once we crossed, Sakura pointed us to a store a couple doors from the corner. It was a candy shop.

"Come on," said Sakura like she was exhilarated to see the candy shop. "Let's go!"

I turned away. "Uhh . . . no."

Sakura placed her hands on her hips and gave me a pout. "Alright, mister, when I come out then, you better have some candy!"

I felt a sweat drop from my left eye. _Really? She wasn't serious, was she?_ She acts like such a kid.

Sakura bolted into the candy shop. Eriol, probably not wanting to be by me, followed. Tomoyo stayed with me though.

Tomoyo looked at me and I looked back. This whole time, she hadn't really said a word. She sure was quiet.

"I'm glad you came, Li-kun," she smiled. All of this smiling really started to creep me out now.

"Well . . . I had nothing to do," I replied.

"Yeah, I know that."

I made a face. Just then, what Tomoyo said to be the other day about Sakura came back to me. I never really thought about it much. I guess I was too busy laughing back then and was a bit too caught up in my own moment afterwards.

"H—hey . . ." I faded.

"Hmm?"

"What you said to me about her . . . the other day . . . is it really true?"

Tomoyo looked as if she was expecting me to mention it again. She inched closer to me and looked at the candy shop as if scanning to see if Sakura was around.

"Yeah . . . it's true. Everyone in school knows about her. That's why, you'll notice, she's treated kind of . . . _special_ I guess you can say."

I thought about what I said to her the other day. _Drop dead_ . . . Really wasn't the best of word choices there. "Not the best choice of words," I repeated, this time out loud.

Tomoyo gave a little giggle and nodded. "You really gave Eriol-kun a spark. Usually he's not like that towards others."

I gagged at his name. "Ugh, that kid."

"Eriol-kun and Sakura-chan are really close friends—even closer than Sakura-chan and I. They get kind of . . . defensive towards each other, as you saw."

When I thought about it, I did see it. When that kid got picked on, Sakura came to his rescue. And when I told off Sakura, _he_ came to _her_ rescue . . . "So are they . . ."

"Who, those two? Oh no. They're not dating or anything."

"Oh—"

Tomoyo immediately surprised me with a nose-to-nose encounter, "Don't _you_ get any ideas, Mister."

"Ugh, no," I said taking a step back. "I'll pass." Tomoyo laughed. "But," I continued, "What _is_ her condition? Why is she . . . only supposed to live for another two years?"

For the first time, since the other day when I laughed in her face, Tomoyo glowered and looked off to the side. I could tell that talking about Sakura and her health condition was a soft spot.

"No one knows," she said. "I've known her for as long as I can remember, but the doctors and her family just doesn't know. Everything about her is fine, the doctors say; but she's had multiple occurrences back when she was younger if suddenly collapsing and falling unconscious . . . and even getting really, really sick to the point she missed out on two months of school. Doctors tried diagnosing her, but they never found out what was going on. All they said was that she wouldn't make it past her graduation year . . ."

A tear started to fall as Tomoyo tried holding back a cry. Damn, I wasn't expecting this.

"I—I'm sorry . . ." I said. But really? Sakura's missed two months of school? That's outrageous.

Tomoyo shook her head. "No, it's okay. Anyways, for the past couple of years, she's been fine. No collapsing, but the doctors and her family are still being careful with her. It's amazing that they even let her out by herself in her condition."

"So . . . nothing's happened for a couple years, right? So she should be fine then, right?"

Tomoyo shrugged. "Maybe . . . hopefully . . ." She looked over at the candy shop and saw Sakura and Eriol already at the register with a bag full of surgery sweets. Tomoyo acted with urgency and came up to me almost as if to whisper. "But hey. Don't _ever_ mention to Sakura-chan or anyone about her health situation, okay?"

I flinched back. "Huh, but why?"

Tomoyo sighed. "No one likes to talk about it . . . it's like a taboo. Would you like it if someone reminded you that you were going to die?"

The tip of my tongue started to hurt. I was biting down pretty hard on it, catching my mouth. Again, I thought back to what I said about Sakura the other day—when I told her to drop dead. That's why she froze . . . she must've been really hurt. Dengit, Syaoran, you really had a bad choice of words back there.

When Sakura and Eriol came up to us with her cheery smile, Tomoyo two-faced herself and went from melancholy to glee.

"Welcome back!" she greeted Sakura.

Sakura dug into her bag of sweets and shoved a circular lollipop in my face. "Now, eat!"

It took me a second to register and come back to reality. "O—oh . . ." I stared at Tomoyo, who just smiled like she always did. I turned to Sakura and the lollipop she still had shoved in my face. She stared at me like giving me candy was some sort of redemption. "I—okay." I took it and stuffed it in my mouth.

Probably the sweetest thing I've had to eat in a long time.

The next place we went to was an antique store on the other side of the block, buildings still overhead like they could block out any rain. Inside was very old fashioned. Lighting was very dim, almost as if only candles were lit. Everything inside was beautiful though. A chandelier hung from a fairly low ceiling, clocked—grandfather clocks—in every corner of the room.

Instruments of all new and old were placed on tables and in cases around the store. I departed my own and wandered through an aisle. Random stuff was in cases: watches, books, a music box . . . a music box . . . the _same_ glass music box that I had.

Suddenly I found myself drawn to it. It was probably just my eyes, but the dim room got even dimmer as if I was in some sort of a trance. The picture of the same girl with blood on my hands flashed over and over again. This time though, it was raining hard. The picture was clearer. I saw myself, holding onto a girl in the rain. I was crying . . . calling for help . . . but no one in this blackness would help.

"—kun."

"—ran-kun"

"Syaoran-kun."

I snapped back. The lights around me brightened just a little bit. I held a hand against my forehead. _A flashback_? I looked outside, it was raining. Then I looked at Sakura who was beside me.

"Syaoran-kun, are you okay?" she asked. I nodded. "It's beautiful, isn't it?"

It was beautiful. But it always panged me to see it.

"H—hey . . ." I said softly. Sakura looked at me. "I . . . I have to go."

Sudden confusion blanketed onto Sakura's face. "Huh? But it's raining—wait, Syaoran-kun!"

Too late. I was already out the door. I probably could've waited for the rain to die down a little bit. The rain was hasn't hard-falling but was definitely heavy. Each drop was like being hit with a small bebe-gun. I felt kind of bad though . . . my first time hanging out with anyone and I didn't even say goodbye to them. Well, that Eriol kid I didn't want to see I guess. But I'll see them tomorrow anyway.

**The Taste of Salt**

I threw my school bag on the ground and immediately went straight into my room. There it was, the glass music box—the same one as the antique shop—but this one had the same, maybe even deeper, scratches and scathes on it. I made a random sobbing noise and weakly made my way to it. Black and white blank memories shot at me. Even though they didn't have a picture, it struck me so hard that I wanted to cry again.

I grabbed it with both hands. "Why?" I said. "What happened . . ." My grip on the music box got tighter. Why can't I remember anything? These blank images that hurt . . . the girl in my arms . . . the blood . . . what happened? "_What happened?_" I screamed and volleyed the glass music box across the room again. It shattered, breaking into even more pieces.

I slammed myself onto my bed, scuffed my head, and groaned. I held back my tears. I didn't want to cry again. It seemed so pointless. But the best way to relieve your sorrow was to cry, right? But why was I feeling so sad? Most of all, why can't I remember the girl? What happened?

That night, I wept until I fell asleep.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary:** Eriol, a prodigy in the making who is always bullied; Syaoran, a transfer student from China with a troubled past and no friends; and Sakura, a beautiful girl full of nothing but optimism and always half full rather than half empty. As if life wasn't hard enough, when their lives intermingle and two boys fall for a girl, who's only supposed to live until her graduation . . . well, this is their story.

**a/n:** Ahh sorry for such a long update. Did a lot Thanksgiving weekend and lately it's been college finals week. But hope you enjoy :)

By: Shinigami 42-42-564's Friend

_Wednesday, September 15, 2010_

For the lunch break, I ended up taking a nap on the same bench in the courtyard from a couple days ago. The sun felt relaxing. There was a soft wind that breezed through my cloths, giving air current through my entire body. I'm surprised, really, that no one ever spends their time here. I mean, why wouldn't they? Of all places to be this was the most relaxing.

Of course, I'd have to eventually find a new place to relax once winter hit.

My stomach growled. So far, my food intake wasn't the best. The only thing I've eaten for the past couple days was the lollipop candy that Sakura gave me and a couple hotdogs I had left—along with mere sink water. The old lady was able to give me a nice expensive apartment to stay in but she couldn't give me enough money to have me buy some food?

I guess eventually I'd have to find a job for myself.

"—please!"

"No!"

"You gotta be kidding me!"

"Just this once—"

"No one cares about you!"

Damn. Quarries on a day like this? I opened one eye and followed where the noise came from. It was towards the south end of the school where I saw _him_ along with two other people—the same people who beat him up on my first day here. They really love picking on the poor kid, don't they?

"You two are on the baseball team—" I heard Eriol say. Everything after that was just all mumbles.

"And why would we lower ourselves just to play for a lame festival?" One of the guys said.

"My, my Eriol-chan, sometimes you try _way_ too hard, y'know that?" The other guy said.

Even though I was quite far away, I could see Eriol bite his lips and clench his fists. He stared down in defeat and the two boys turned to leave as they mocked him.

_This kid really has it tough_, I thought. _Meh, who care_?

_Thursday, September 16, 2010_

Different day same deal. During the lunch break, I lied back down on the bench under a beautiful Cherry Blossom tree. The sun was the same, but this time the wind blew just a bit harder. Not too hard, but hard enough to have my hair tickle my face. I didn't hear any squirming this time. A bit rougher wind for even more peace? Good tradeoff.

But then I just had to feel a presence hovering over me. I opened one eye again and saw the long-haired Tomoyo gazing down at me.

"Hi," she said, "haven't seen you in a couple days."

"Oh . . . it's you."

"Can I sit?"

_Huh? Sit?_ "S—sure, I guess." I force myself out of the comfortable sleeping position and slid to one side of the bench.

"I brought a lunch box, would you like to eat?"

It was then I noticed that she had two obentos wrapped up in a black and white checkered cloth. I wanted to refuse it, but my swallow and crying stomach fought me back. I nodded and Tomoyo unwrapped the boxes and opened them up. Half the bento was rice and the other half was full of fried eggs, octopus and a couple onigiris. My mouth drooled.

Tomoyo gave me a pair of chopsticks and I didn't hesitate to dig right in.

"Y—you must be hungry . . ." she said. I had my mouth full and stuffed. I didn't realize until now that I was being a real pig; already half the rice gone and a fried egg, octopus, and onigiri a piece.

"S—sorry," I apologized.

Tomoyo laughed. "Oh no, don't apologize. But I noticed that you never eat any lunch . . . don't you have any food at home to make?"

I choked on a rice and turned away. Tomoyo handed me a bottle of water and I drunk half of it down. Yeah . . . real pig. "Well . . . not really . . ."

"Oh . . ." I can see that Tomoyo had pity in her eyes for me. I didn't want that kind of pity though. It made me seem weak! "In that case," she continued, "I'll make you some lunch everyday then."

Wait, what? I swallowed my last fried egg and wiped my mouth with my sleeve. "N—no! You don't have to. That's just doing _way_ too much for me. I'll be fine with just today."

"You mean _for_ just today. Don't worry about it." She gave me a look that said _if you don't let me make you lunch every day, I'll hunt you down and shove food down your throat!_ Preposterous, I know.

I swallowed another octopus and cleared my throat. "A—anyways, where are the other two?"

"Oh? Sakura-chan and Eriol-kun are in the classroom eating. I just came to look for you because you just suddenly disappeared after spending some time with us a couple days ago."

"I uhh . . . appreciate the care, I guess, but I don't need it . . . necessarily."

"You're really hard to be friends with, aren't you?"

I choked on a chunk of rice. "N—no, I just—" I just sighed. Time to change the topic. "—well, anyways, I noticed that Eriol . . . kind of gets battered a lot. Is he always like that?"

Tomoyo took about a minute before she acted like she finally heard me. From what I could tell, Eriol being picked on was also a touchy subject. Tomoyo gave a brief sigh and said,

"Sadly, yes."

"And those two guys really seem to have a thing against him."

"Oh them, they're brothers—also the star players on the baseball team."

"Oh . . .?"

Tomoyo nodded. "Yeah. They've always been picking on Eriol ever since we were middle school. Though I don't really know why though. I guess Eriol sets himself up as an easy prey. His grades are atop the entire school, and always have been, so I guess they probably pick on him because he's a _nerd_. Sakura-chan and I are his only friends, so he doesn't really get along with anyone else in the school . . . I guess that doesn't help his case."

"Hmm . . ." I took another serving of rice.

_Friday, September 17. 2010_

Again, for the lunch hour, Tomoyo came down with another bento. I honestly didn't expect her to come back. Once again though, I was hungry and had nothing else to eat, so I thanked her for the meal and dug in. Today's meal was rice with tomato toppings and fried eggs with a couple rolls of sushi on the side.

"So, are the other two still in the room?" I asked with a mouth full of sushi.

Tomoyo shook her head and said, "Sakura-chan is, but looks like Eriol-kun went searching for players for the baseball team."

"Still? Can't he have the other representatives just find them?"

"Well . . . the class presidents all decided that they would each find at least one person to bring in—so that not one person has to do so much work."

"Oh . . ."

"Well at this rate, Eriol-kun's not gonna find anyone."

I shrugged, "Meh, no one's going to want to play under him. Not the way he is at least."

Suddenly something unexpected happened. Tomoyo laughed.

"W—wait . . . you're laughing?" I slowly asked.

"Well," she started, in the middle of her laugh, "You're right . . . if only Eriol becomes as tough as he is when he's helping Sakura-chan."

I took a moment to think about that. When I told Sakura to drop dead, Eriol really did become someone different. For a second there, I guess he became the _bully_ and I was just someone standing my ground. But I guess it could've been the other way around too. That kid . . . so hopeless.

When the lunch hour was over, Tomoyo re-packed her bentos back up into a bundle and we both started heading back into the school building.

"On Monday, you should come up and eat with us," said Tomoyo. She gave me her usual smile.

I turned away, "Uhh, no thanks.'

"Fine then! We'll come out and eat with you then!"

I turned back to her, her smile still dried onto that face of hers. I sighed. There's no winning when it comes to this girl.

"Oh, and also, we're planning to go to the arcade center today, want to come?"

"T—the arcade?"

So I ended up going.

The arcade was downtown where all the big shoulder-to-shoulder buildings live. For just a corner venue, I was surprised to see the place so huge and packed. A bunch of people my age, some even younger, played games like virtual shooters, fighters, racing, and ticket-games. Eriol jumped from game to game. First was a strategy game—of course—and the next one he played was a racing game: Initial D.

He took the driver seat as the rest of us watched from behind and raced another person. When the race was over with an Eriol victory, his Initial D card popped back out and scores scrolled up the screen. That was when my eyes lit up. The top ten fastest scores on the list were all his: Eriol's. It didn't seem like it was just a bunch of kids he played against; the person he just beat got up with a fury.

"Is this game that important for everyone?" I asked.

Sakura nodded. "It's the game all the arcade gamers talk about and play. People make wagers and bets all the time on this game. But no one's been able to beat Eriol-kun yet. He's the best."

"Better luck next time," said Eriol to the guy he just beat. He almost sounded like he was mocking him.

The guy scuffed his nose and said, "Yeah, yeah, whatever."

Eriol got up with a stretch and Sakura and Tomoyo congratulated him. The way that he told the other guy off really surprised me. It was like he was _top dog_ and wasn't afraid of anything. I wondered why he couldn't be like that at school.

The next thing we did was go to a claw machine. Sakura saw a little yellow bear-like plush doll with white wings and immediately went crazy. She threw in some money and tried multiple times, but failed multiple times. She got frustrated and Eriol tried after her; still, no success.

"You guys are lame," I whispered to myself. "Here, let me do it."

My first try, I got it. I can't really remember much of what I was like in China, but for some reason I felt like I was just naturally good at crane machines. I gave the doll to Sakura and she screamed with joy.

"Thank you, Syaoran-kun!" she squealed.

I took a quick glance at Eriol and caught a death-stare coming from him. Suddenly I felt an evil presence roaming around my and turned to another game.

Turning to another game was a bad idea. Every game I played, Eriol joined me and went against me—utterly destroying me in the process in all of the games we played. I guess if he were to ever to have anything over me, it would be gaming.

Well, after about an hour of getting destroyed, it was time to head out. Tomoyo and Sakura lived in one direction and apparently, Eriol lived in the same direction as me so we ended up walking together; it was either that or one of us walked stalkingly behind the other.

It was a quiet walk . . . almost awkward. We didn't look at each other, nor did we make a sound. When I said quiet, I meant _quiet_. But it came to a point where I just about had enough. I didn't like the guy, but anything was better than walking with a guy I didn't like in silence.

"So . . ." I started, "you're pretty good at the games."

_He_ was just as surprised as me about breaking the silence. Eriol cleared his throat and said,

"Yeah, games are just about the only thing I'm good at. It comes naturally to me. I haven't been beaten in any game ever since I started."

Though I wasn't really into games, I can understand that not being beaten in anything was a pretty good accomplishment.

"Not a single person?" I asked.

"Not a single person," he answered.

I giggled—mockingly. "Too bad you're not like that in real life."

"What are you talking about?" This time Eriol's voice was agitated.

"I mean all high-and-mighty. No wonder you get picked on a lot, you just let other people take advantage of you."

"What do you know about me?"

"I know that you've let yourself get picked on for quite a while now—since middle school right?"

"How did—"

"And just the other day, I said something really bad to Kinomoto-san again—"

"You did _wha—_"

"I was just _kidding_. But you see what I mean? If only you can get aggressive like this whenever you're sticking up for _her_."

I could tell, he was getting pretty mad now. I wasn't sure if this was a good thing, or a bad thing.

"Tch." Eriol turned away. "Even if I did, it's not like I can beat anyone up like they do me."

"It's not about beating anyone up," I said, this time trying to sound sincere. "You're getting the wrong idea. It's about just sticking up for yourself . . . even if you get beat up. It shows that you're confident in yourself. Display that you're done with getting beat up on and you'll earn respect . . . especially to those guys."

"What do you know?"

"Would _you_ beat up a guy you respect?" I retorted.

"Why would I get respect if I stand up for myself like you said?"

"Because only the weak get bullied, once you show that you're not weak anymore, you won't be bullied. That's how it is."

We cut through to a park. My _fancy_ apartment was about another ten minute walk from there. This way was so much faster, I can't believe I never saw this. On a side note from the conversation, the park was called _Penguin_ Park—or so the sign said. I would assume it was because there was a giant penguin dome at the center of it.

The sun began to set, casting shadows to the east and illuminating orange all over.

Quickly, since there was no one around, I swooped behind Eriol and arched my arms upward under his arms and clung onto him. Then I put my palms together and pressed against the back of his head, putting Eriol in a hold with his head forward and arms dangling to the side.

"_Ack_—what are you doing?" He squirmed, trying to get out.

"Try to get out. Come on, fight back!" I exclaimed.

"G—get off of me!"

"No! Come on, you wuss! Get out of my lock!"

"I'm serious—"

"So am I! Come on! I can't believe Kinomoto-san has a wimpy friend like you!"

"What did you say?" He screamed.

"I feel sorry for her—"

Okay, maybe using Sakura as an aggravated aid wasn't the best thing. Eriol ended up pulling one of my legs forward with his own and forced me to stumble a bit. I loosened up a bit on his head to catch my balance and just as I did that, Eriol rammed the back of his head into my nose. Once I unwrapped from him to cover my panged face, I felt a quick elbow to the side of my eyes.

Before I knew it, I found myself sitting on the ground, losing my sense of smell for a minute before I could recuperate. All I felt was pain in my entire face and to the right of my right eyes. A headache gloomed and my vision blurred for a bit. Damn this kid hits hard.

When I refocused myself, I saw Eriol in front of me, kind of slouching forward as if to see if I was already.

"S—sorry!" he exclaimed. But all I did was laugh.

"Just like that! You see, all you got to do is stand up for yourself like that."

Eriol turned away, "I—I don't think so."

"D'awee come on!"

"If I do, they'll just hate me even more!"

"You don't have to like someone to respect them."

For about a minute, things were silent. Eriol just stared off to the side and I just bluntly took the pain I was in a stared at him.

"Oh, your nose is all covered in blood!" Eriol suddenly said.

"Hey, don't change the—"

Oh, he was right. I licked the upper part of my lips and tasted nothing but blood. My hands were covered in blood from holding onto my nose and I could feel the sting of blood at the bottom of my eyes. Paying attention to the blood on my face only made my nose hurt even more though.

Slowly, I took in a deep breath and then let out a cry that could be heard from miles away.

**The Taste of Salt**

Eriol ended up taking me to a hospital. I'd broken my nose pretty bad, said the nurses who treated me. My smelling was completely off and I had to breathe from my mouth. Eriol was with me the entire time, apologizing the entire time. The kid wouldn't shut up even though I constantly said that I accepted his apologize.

But, when he finally quiet down, we were done. I had a patch on my nose and ended up with a black right eye. We made our way to the lobby, and just as we made it, the emergency doors blew open and a couple EMT's sprinted in with a stretcher. On the stretcher was a little girl with light brown hair. She had an oxygen mask over her and looked like she was having a hard time breathing.

Quickly, two other lady nurses and a guy doctor ran up to the cart and guided it down the hallway. They disappeared around a corner.

The girl, though, reminded me of Sakura. I glanced at Eriol and he kept his gaze down the hallway. I could tell that he had the exact same thought . . . maybe an even deeper one. His worried annoyed look suddenly turned into sadness and sorrow. I just had to bring up what Tomoyo told me to keep quiet.

"Neh," I blurted. Eriol slowly looked at me. "Is . . . is it true? About _her_?"

"You mean Sakura-chan?" he asked. I nodded. "Who told you?"

"Umm D—Daidouji-san . . . did."

Eriol took a deep breath and turned towards the exit. "Yeah . . . it's true; but no one likes to talk about it."

I didn't say anything else. We exited the hospital and saw the ambulance still flashing its lights right outside of the emergency doors. From there, Eriol went his own way.

It was quite odd seeing him quiet suddenly after seeing that little girl—the way he kept his gaze on that scene. It was like he was expecting that kind of day to happen one day . . . to Sakura. That one day, he'd be running along the paramedics, nurses, and doctors down a hospital hallway. Certainly . . . that day will come and it seemed as if Eriol was unwillingly preparing for it.

These three people that I met so far here in Tomoeda . . . they're so happy . . . but they're living such an inevitable tragic life.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary:** Eriol, a prodigy in the making who is always bullied; Syaoran, a transfer student from China with a troubled past and no friends; and Sakura, a beautiful girl full of nothing but optimism and always half full rather than half empty. As if life wasn't hard enough, when their lives intermingle and two boys fall for a girl, who's only supposed to live until her graduation . . . well, this is their story.

**a/n:** Oh my I didn't realize it was this late! But here's the next chapter :3 sorry I hope you all enjoy! It's a bit longer this time!

By: Shinigami 42-42-564's Friend

_Monday, September 20, 2010_

Even through the weekend, I couldn't smell. The black eye I had faded a little bit, but not much. I wandered the school hallways being stared at. _Oh the new kid got into a fight?_ And stuff like that rumored around. The large white patch on my nose started to get annoying. Inside was really itchy, but I couldn't scratch it . . . it hurt too much to scratch. I felt like the rest of the bones in my nose would've just crumbled and sunk into my bloodstream if I touched it.

Well, nothing new. Again, lunch broke out and I made my way to the same spot again. But this time, as I approached my little spot, there was a pink and green picnic blanket matted on the grass right in front of the bench with a couple picnic baskets set on top.

"Oh no," I muttered to myself. "She didn't—"

"There you are, Li-kun!" I turned behind me and there she was, Tomoyo along with Eriol and Sakura, marching there way over with plates and silverware.

"She did." I made a face.

"Oh dear," squealed Sakura. She cupped her mouth with her hands and stared at me like I was some sort of horrified creep. "What happened to you?"

I quickly looked at Eriol and he gave a silent innocent laugh and scratched the back of his head. Tomoyo looked kind of surprised as well, but just laughed it off. I wasn't sure if she was laughing at me or something else.

"U—uh I'm fine . . . don't worry about me," I said trying to make it so they aren't staring at me like a freak.

Sakura walked up to me with a curious face. "Does it hurt?" She quickly took two fingers and pressed the tip of my bandage. Pain raced through my face and I swore I would've turned into Rudolf or something.

"Yes!" I cried in pain and covered my nose. "Of course it does!"

"Oh, sorry!"

I turned away. "I—I guess." This girl is quite a klutz.

"Anyways," Tomoyo broke in, "Let's eat!"

They really did join me just like Tomoyo said they would. We sat in a square—I sat across from Eriol with Sakura to my left and Tomoyo to my right—and opened up the basket of food. This time the food seemed to be extra special: sashimi, fried eggs with ketchup, japchae, and even Korean kimchi was in there.

Delicious, as always; even though they kind of pushed themselves to me, I almost didn't mind their company. I admit, sometimes I got bored sleeping on the bench by myself, but of all people to hang out with, why the new guy? Especially with the horrible first impression that I gave off.

"By the way, Syaoran-kun," started Sakura. I gave her a glance with rice in my mouth. "You're from China, right? Can I ask, how come you transferred here from China?"

Another patch of rice went down my throat before I gave it any thought. Why did I move here from China? To be honest, I couldn't quite remember why. I tried thinking back to the last possible event that could've led me to moving to Japan, but I couldn't. The only thing I can remember was the same old flash of blood and that girl.

I shook my head to get myself out of that thought. "Umm, I just . . . had some troubles there that I couldn't avoid. So my mom made me move to Japan to live on my own for a while." My answer was a complete fib, but for some reason, I deeper part of me told me that part of what I said was true. For a second it agitated me to think about it.

"Oh," said Sakura with a blank face, but then she smiled. "Well, I hope you find it nice here in Tomoeda then! How do you like it so far?"

"Well . . . I haven't really seen anything here yet."

"The school festival is next week," started Tomoyo. "Hopefully you enjoy that, it'll be really nice."

"I'm sure he means more _outside_ of school stuff," said Eriol. He and I seemed to have clicked at that moment. Really, when I said I haven't seen anything yet, I definitely meant anything outside of school.

"I can take you around the city then!" Sakura suggested. Just as she said that, Eriol seemed to have choked on his food. Just as he recuperated, he immediately said,

"I—I'll go with, too, if Sakura-chan is gonna show you around."

He sounded like he didn't want Sakura and I to go alone. Tomoyo looked at him with the same happy face and laughed at the end like she caught a shot of jealousy from him.

"Oh, by the way, Eriol-kun," started Sakura, "Did you find anyone for your part of the team yet?"

Eriol coughed on whatever he was shoving down his throat. "No . . . not yet."

"You better get one fast, the other presidents are getting pretty upset that you haven't found one yet."

"If you can't find anyone, I'm sure Li-kun can be that person for you," suggested Tomoyo.

I gave her a death stare. "Oi, don't bring me into this like that."

Eriol shrugged and turned away, "He probably wouldn't be able to hit a baseball off a tee."

"_Oi!_ Don't say that about me like that!" I retorted sliding my glare to Eriol. These guys . . . pathetic!

Sakura, out of nowhere, laughed. "I'm sure you'll find someone, Eriol-kun; and I'm sure you'd be a great player, Syaoran-kun."

I turned away and the two girls laughed.

**The Taste of Salt**

_Thursday, September 23, 2010_

A few days past and Eriol still hadn't found anyone to fill in his part of the baseball roster. But today was that day. During lunch break I aimlessly made my way to the second level bridge and stared down into the courtyard. There, Eriol was once again confronting those two jerks. But it wasn't in the courtyard, but right behind me actually on the other side of the bridges where I could still see them. I guess you can say they were "behind" the building where not many people could see them unless you were where I was.

I couldn't exactly see as clear because they were quite a ways away and I couldn't hear as clear, but I managed to catch what I needed. That said, I leaned forward and relaxed myself on the railing and enjoyed the show.

"Are you not done bugging us already?" one of the two guys said.

"Please, just one of you needs to join for the games!" Eriol retorted in desperation.

"Stupid kid," the other said, "We've already said _no_!"

As the two were about to turn and leave, Eriol grabbed onto one of their uniforms.

"Please, just—"

Before Eriol could finish, the boy he grabbed on to swung a backhand to Eriol's face, slapping him to the ground. Any other normal person's reaction would be to gasp and be worried, but I could almost care less. If anything, this is what I wanted . . . this is what needed to happen. I wonder if Eriol was thinking the same thing or not.

As expected, Eriol got back up and continued to push his request. But they only pushed him down again, this time, even harder. He got back up. This time they gave him a knee to the stomach.

Got back up, pushed his face down.

Got back up, kicked him down.

Got back up, pushed to the right check down.

Watching him get beat up actually made the pain on my nose begin to seep back in. It felt itchy and scruffy.

The next time Eriol got back up, he caught a punch from one of the guys. The second person saw that and went for another backhand. But this time, Eriol charged his way and shouldered the kid in the gut and pushed the one he caught back. None of them fell, and Eriol embraced for a final beating, but nothing happened.

The kid Eriol shouldered held onto his stomach and spat at the ground. He looked at Eriol with a glare as if he was going to do something really bad to him. Nothing happened.

"What's gotten into _you_?" the kid asked. "Come on, let's get out of here."

With that said, they left.

Eriol fell to his knees with a hand on his check. He looked disappointed. He looks scared. At the same time though, even though I was kind of far away, he looked like he had accomplished something.

_Wednesday, September 22, 2010_

Sadly, I had to participate in the baseball game for Eriol. Okay, I guess I didn't _have_ to, but it wasn't my choice. Not really. I guess you can say that I was guilted into doing it. All went well I guess. The two guys have been, in a sense, leaving Eriol alone. Tomoyo, Sakura, and even Eriol still came to the courtyard to bring me lunch. I tried hiding and going elsewhere multiple times during the week, trying to escape their persistent kindness, but that Tomoyo girl just keeps on finding me no matter where I seem to go.

But I guess here it was . . . last half of the inning, two outs, runner on second and third and we're down by two. It was just me against the third year pitcher that they chose. The third year people managed to grab half the baseball team while we were just amateurs. I was surprised that we managed to keep the game close.

Anyway, the count on zero-to-zero. The pitch came and blew by me into catcher's glove.

"_STRIKE!"_ yelled the student umpire.

"Did you have to yell is with such enthusiasm?" I asked.

"Hey, I don't get to do this every day, give me a break."

The next pitch. I swung. I missed.

"STIKE TWO!"

I wanted to slug the ump in the face.

"You can do it, Syaoran-kun!" Over at the bench, Sakura stood and cheered. Even though she had no idea how the game of baseball worked, she still cheered at all the good and jeered at all the bad. Eriol was in the dugout watching from there and Tomoyo was recording from over the homerun fence. I face could be the center of her camera right now and I wouldn't even know about it.

The next pitch came. This time, time slowed for me as I focused. The ball was chest high. It would be a strike if I didn't swing at it. My grip on the bat tightened and I swung forward.

_Clang!_

The ball flew into the air past the second basemen. I ran to first and watched as it continued the sore. Sakura screamed with excitement and Eriol took a step out of the dugout to watch the ball. I did it . . .

Right as I rounded first base, the ball fell straight into the glove of the centerfielder.

"_Out! _Game!" Yelled the umpire.

I sighed and cursed to myself. Almost had it . . .

_Saturday, September 25, 2010_

The night of the festival, I wanted to stay home. But the _gang_ forced me to go. How they forced me? I have no clue. Sadly though, I didn't have much to wear when it comes to a _festival_ themed attire. I ended up wearing a green Chinese robe that I found in my closet. With it was a traditional greet had. Not like Peter Pan or Robin Hood, but don't get me to try and explain what it looks like, because it's not happening.

The festival was held all over the school. Inside on all floors, in the courtyard of the U-shaped school, and all around the perimeter. For only a school festival, I seemed like everyone from Tomoeda was there.

The outside was lit by traditional Japanese lanterns so the area was dim, good enough to see, but still allowed the beauty of the night to shadow the area. I didn't recognize anyone in their traditional clothing. But I guess I couldn't recognize anyone even in their regular clothing as well.

I looked around in one spot for quite some time, looking like a lost pup. I hadn't realized this until now but, there are a lot of beautiful girls here at this school. About a third of them looked like they were at least dating and about half of the guys looked like they were trying to find dates . . . Sure makes me feel lonely.

"Syaoran-kun!" I heard a voice scream to me—a familiar voice.

I twisted and I turned, trying to find the voice. Over by a brightly lit kiosk, Sakura, Tomoyo, and Eriol were all standing yards in front of it. Eriol wore a black yukata to match his glasses; Tomoyo was in an elegant orange kimono with golden birds all over; and Sakura had a pink kimono with straps of red and white cherry blossom pedals drawn.

The three walked over to me and greeted me.

"You made it!" exclaimed Sakura.

I sighed, "Yeah, yeah . . ."

The two girls seemed happy, but Eriol looked like he wished I hadn't come. What took my attention was a bandage on Eriol's cheek where he had gotten punched. I wonder was Sakura and Tomoyo thought about it when they first saw it. Well I guess now it was his time to wear a bandage. I was able to take mine off a couple days back.

"What happened to your face?" I joked. I've been asking him this ever since the day after he got beat up.

Eriol turned away, "Shut up!"

I made a face. "Fine, be like that."

Sakura walked in between us, "Okay boys, come on. We came here to enjoy ourselves. Now let's start enjoying ourselves!" She took Tomoyo's hand and ran off. Was she expecting us to follow them?

"Oh yeah," I started, "What'd I tell you? Just stick up for yourself and you'll be fine."

Eriol gave me a look like he didn't want to agree with me, but he knew I was right. He turned away again, "Yeah, let's just see how long this lasts before everyone decides to pick on me again."

I glowered. Man this guy has NO confidence whatsoever. "Quit being a little pansy, come on, I'm gonna go hang out with the girls if you don't come."

"H—hey, wait for me!"

We actually did a lot of things. Everything was free except for a few things like food. We had to buy these "tickets" and go into classrooms where they made student-made food. I wasn't the greatest food, but it wasn't bad. I guess what I'm saying is . . . I can do better. I had pasta with tender meat sauce. The next thing we tried was a French crepe. Exceptionally good.

We went back outside for more games. Played some random fishing game here and there, they managed a claw machine that was a lot easier than most claw machines would be.

I stopped at one kiosk that got my attention. It had rows of music boxes and people had to pop balloons to get one of them. Suddenly it felt like someone took a hand, dug into my chest and squeezed my heart. Pain shot through me and I almost fell. Sakura and the other two were playing that game, failing miserably. I took a few steps back. Memories of that one girl flashed in front of me again.

"Who are you?" I quietly said to myself. The next thing I noticed was me walking away from everyone.

**The Taste of Salt**

There was only one place that was at least a little bit quiet, and that was the third floor bridge on the North end. In the middle of it gazing into the courtyard was where I was at. All the students and people that were down in the courtyard were like little ants all squirming. The sky seemed a lot brighter from this high up from all the lanterns and lights.

It's been about half an hour since I left the group. During that time while I was up here, I did nothing but ponder the images that I saw. For a good few days or so, the pictures of that girl with blood and rain never appeared. Maybe I was distracted? By . . . them? But for some reason, those musical boxes triggered her again. Why? I haven't even touched my glass box in my room in a while. It's still shattered into probably tens of thousands of pieces.

Suddenly, anger and sorrow filled me once again. The same anger and sorrow that I got in my room trying to rebuild that music box. I had to go and rebuild it again. I want those memories back . . . I _need_ those memories back . . . who is she? And why does she keep reappearing in me?

I turned to leave but stopped when I saw Sakura just inches from my face. We both flinched back with surprise.

"What are—what are you doing here?" I exclaimed.

"Oh . . . there you are!" she said.

"What, were you looking for me?"

"N—no . . . sort of—I thought you just left and went home."

"Oh . . . then why're you here?"

Sakura set a hand on a railing and stared down at the crowd in the courtyard. "This is . . . where I go when I need to be alone and calm myself."

"Alone?" Then I noticed it. At the tip of her eyelash was a tear. Quickly she wiped it away with her kimono as if she didn't want anyone to see it. Was she crying? "How come you need to be alone _now_? Where's Eriol and Tomoyo?"

She turned to me with a forced smile and said, "I ditched them, just like you ditched us!" She added a giggle at the end, but it was also forced.

I made a face. Ditched huh? I guess that word sounded a bit cruel. "But why do you need to be alone?"

It took her about a minute of silence before she replied with, "I just saw something that . . . made me feel uneasy . . . that's all."

"Uneasy?" I repeated.

She nodded. "Yeah, but you don't have to worry about it. I'll be fine." She gave me another smile.

Sighing, I put my hands on her shoulders and turned her towards the west side hallways. "Come on, let's get back. They're probably wondering where we are—especially _you_."

**The Taste of Salt**

When we found Tomoyo and Eriol again, Eriol gave me a jealous look. I'm sure he had the wrong idea. Tomoyo ran up to Sakura with relief like something bad could've happened to her. Then she turned to me with a '_I hope you didn't do anything naughty to her!'_ look. I only sighed again at the looks that were given to me. Not even a single, "Oh, there you are!" was said.

After the reunion, Tomoyo and Sakura went off on their own.

Eriol came up to me and said, "What did you two do?" He was kind of frantic about the way he said it.

"Oh, dude, trust me; we didn't do anything. I was by myself the whole time until I bumped into her."

"Uh-huh, right."

"Fine, you caught me. We made out under the stairs, happy?"

"WHAT?"

"I was just kidding alright? Now shut it, don't have to be jealous or anything."

"JEALOUS?"

"Anyway . . . why did she run off in the first place?" I asked.

Eriol paused for a second. "I don't know . . . we were playing a ring-toss game and she disappeared when we were done."

Eriol pointed out the ring-toss game and I walked to it. Nothing seemed unusual about it. Nothing seemed to have made Sakura want to run off on her own like that and cry. But as I leered a few kiosks down, I saw it—or what I thought was the reason. There was one game that I thought would be a fun game, but I guess not for _her_.

It was a game that consisted of a coffin. As people lined up for it, it looked like someone is put into the coffin and had to play some sort of game in a race against time to get out. The sooner you get out, the better the prize. It was understandable now. When Sakura saw the game . . . it probably reminded her of her . . . you know.

That would be saddened though. I've had plenty of moments like that. Not necessarily the same kind of story, but those moments when you're just trying to enjoy yourself and all of a sudden you see something that just completely ruins your mood. It sucks.

Eriol came to my side and we both stared at the _fun_ coffin game. People went in and out, some even scared to be trapped in it, others enjoyed it. We exchanged glances and I instantly knew that we were both thinking about the same thing.

"Well," I started, "I'm heading out. See you guys later."

"I'll walk with you." Suggest Eriol.

"W—wait, what? No!"

But he did anyway. By _walk_ he just meant to the entrance of the school. I stopped to turn to him as he stopped and things just got awkward. I swear it seemed as if he was going to confess his love to me or something.

"Hey, look—" he started, but I cut him off.

"Hey, look . . . I'm sorry but I don't roll that way—"

"Shut up! It's not like that!" He retorted.

I turned to the side. "Okay, okay, what did you want?"

"I just wanted to say _thank you_ . . ."

I looked at him with an eerie look. "For what?"

"For helping me stand up for myself . . . if I hadn't, then those two guys would've never stopped picking on me."

"I kind of think that you were the one to go pock on them that day."

"Well in a way I did approach them but . . . when they started pushing me down I—wait, how did you know?"

I laced my hands behind my head, "I saw things from somewhere."

Eriol glowered.

"Anyways, did you ever tell the girls when they were nagging you on what happened?"

"Tell them? Of course not! Why would I? Sakura-chan was already upset as it was! I didn't want her to get into any trouble because of me. But she's long past that already."

"I suppose." From the looks on Eriol's face, he was serious about the apology. "Fine, I accept your apology—" I pointed at him with a stern face, "—but from now on, you are now my slave!"

"WHAT!? GO SCREW YOURSELF!"

"I was just kidding. Sheesh." Damn, that failed.

"Okay, okay. But don't get used to this. I feel awkward as it is."

"Oh don't worry. I don't plan on getting used to this. I'm not going to be asking for any favors from you."

"Good."

"Good."

"I like that."

"I like that too."

"I like her."

"I like her too—_HEY!_"

I made a face. "Wow for the smartest kid in school, you're really dumb."

"Shut it, you."

I turned to leave. "Well, catch ya later then. I'm heading out." With that, before I heard anything else, I left on my way to home.

A girl who tries to live her life as happily as possible; a boy who's the smartest kid in school and obviously has some feelings for that girl, and another girl who's just caught in the middle, maybe the extension in their friendship and the one holding them up. If they're really my _friends_ then what role would I be playing?

It's not like I just walked into their lives or anything. If anything, they _dragged_ me into their lives. But I guess I really didn't mind. Why would I? Who would? I feel like I should be happier, shouldn't be contemplating about making new friends. It feels like there's some sort of hindrance that keeping me from enjoying all of this. But what . . .

When I got home, made my way to my room and tossed my hat onto the bed. On the floor was still zillions of pieces of glass. It took me five hours to piece things together again the last time—just to once again throw it against my wall and break it. Now it'll probably take even longer with many pieces.

I grabbed my glue and tape, swept up the pieces and began yet another impossible rebuilding process.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary:** Eriol, a prodigy in the making who is always bullied; Syaoran, a transfer student from China with a troubled past and no friends; and Sakura, a beautiful girl full of nothing but optimism and always half full rather than half empty. As if life wasn't hard enough, when their lives intermingle and two boys fall for a girl, who's only supposed to live until her graduation . . . well, this is their story.

**a/n**: Sorry for the late update .! Forgive me! I got into an accident out of town and wasn't able to type for a while because I had a caste on my hand. But it's off now so here you go, enjoy! Please review this chapter! Also tell me what you think might happen, what you hope might happen, and anything to critique as well. Thanks!

By: Shinigami 42-42-564's Friend

_Monday, October 4, 2010_

It's been almost a month now since I've been here at this school. I've gotten acquainted with some people here but I wouldn't necessarily call them _friends_ of mine. Still I get dragged to hang out with Eriol and the other two girls. As much as I really didn't want to at times, they make me—still. Why? I have no idea.

"Neh, Li-kun," I heard from behind as was making my way home from the schoolyard.

I turned to see Tomoyo by herself with a smile on her face. "Hey, what's up?"

"Would you like to go shopping with me?" She smiled again.

This was quite random actually. I didn't know what to think. Shopping? With her? I was used to shopping as a whole group but this time it would be just her and I.

"S—sure . . . I guess," I mumbled.

"Great!" She exclaimed.

We ended up going to the other side of town. Being the introvert I was, I had no idea what this place was. I ended up following Tomoyo into a mall. I pretty big mall. The mall was part of a strip but it ended up being a pretty big mall with four levels all stretched farther than what I could see. Shopping centers were neck-to-neck and people with their families were enjoying their time here—so they looked. Of course the mall would be this big . . . it was underground.

"So . . . what did you need to get?" I asked while following Tomoyo around.

She turned halfway and smiled, "A present."

"A present?"

"Yeah."

"For . . ."

"For my mom."

"Oh," I said. "And you need me to come along?"

She shook her head. "No, I just wanted some company, that's all."

"Sakura and Eriol couldn't come with you?"

Tomoyo giggled. "Not today. They had to go home early. Or else you wouldn't be here."

For some reason, as irritating as it was to tag along, it kind of pinched to know that I wouldn't be here if the other two had come.

Suddenly Tomoyo turned around and stuck her tongue out. "I was just kidding. Of course I would've invited you too."

I gave her a face. "Right, right. Anyways, is it your mom's birthday or something?"

She nodded. "It will be soon. On Friday."

"Well, what does she like then?"

Tomoyo giggled. "I don't know. Anything I guess. But I already know what I'm going to get."

We made our way across to a floral shop. The shopping part of these wasn't so interesting. All Tomoyo bought was a bouquets of red roses and a basket. I was expecting something a bit more for me having to tag along with her to the mall.

When we exited the mall, I was actually kind of disappointed that our journey into the land of glamor wasn't as entertainingly long as I would've hoped for it to be. There was still so much of the mall I wanted to see but it was just quick in and out. I was for sure going to come back to this place. It was pretty big to what I had in China.

"That was it?" I grunted.

Tomoyo, again, giggled, "Hey now, it's the thought that counts, right?"

I shrugged. "I guess. What's the mall called? I want to come back to it."

"The Venus," replied Tomoyo. "It's one of the bigger malls in Tomoeda. Mainly, as you can see, because it's underground."

"Ah, this place is pretty amazing . . . are you just gonna head home now?"

"Actually no. I was going to head over to Sakura-chan's house. Would you want to come?"

Sakura's house? For a moment I thought about it. But like usual, I debated to not go, said I was not going to go, and ended up going.

**The Taste of Salt**

Sakura's house was quite the journey. Completely the opposite of where I lived. In fact, from the mall it was a fifteen minute train ride. Not too bad I suppose. But when you're talking about me going home later on—now that's something.

But Sakura lived in a nice modernized Japanese house. It was two stories tall with a brick perimeter outside of its yard. Small steps slowly made its way from the front of the yard to the front door of the house.

She lived in a quiet neighborhood. Almost a dead neighborhood as I actually haven't seen anyone since I got here.

"Well, here's her house. Make sure not to stalk her now," said Tomoyo as we made out up to the front door.

I forced a laugh. "Right, right."

After Tomoyo rang the doorbell and knocked, a few seconds later, the door opened and a tall, lean, guy with black raven-like hair stepped in front of us.

"Hello, Daidouji-chan," he greeted and then turned to me with the evil look that I usually gave Eriol. Oh how I knew right away that I wasn't going to be getting along with him. "Who's this scrub?"

Right away I was irritated and gave him my own evil look. "Who you calling a scrub?"

"Now, now, boys. This is our new transfer student from China, Li Syaoran-kun." Tomoyo introduced. "Li-kun, this is Touya—Sakura's older brother."

I saw no resemblance at all.

But just as the intros were done, Sakura shoved her way through Touya and smiled as if she was exquisitely delighted to see us.

"Hi! What are you two doing here?" she exclaimed.

I turned to Tomoyo and said, "I'd actually like to know that too."

Tomoyo giggled and said, "Just came for a visit, that's all. Mind if we come in?"

"Sure!" Sakura said with joy.

When Tomoyo entered, I found myself close to another damaged—and possibly broken—nose as the door was slammed shut right in front of me before I got the chance to take a step after her. I didn't even have to think about who almost destroyed my face.

"Hey, you!" I yelled. "Open up!"

The door opened again, but it was Sakura who opened it with a sorry look on her face. "Aha, sorry about that, Syaoran-kun. My brother can get quite . . . troublesome with new people. Please, come in."

I veered pass Sakura to see the back of Touya's on a couch across the room watching TV. _This guy_, I thought. Boy did I have the urge to punch him. Almost like when I had the urge to beat up Eriol.

After calming myself, I entered.

Her house was nice. Right as I entered, wooden floors laid the ground. There was a stairway leading upstairs to the right. Leaning by way over and staring up it looked like a dark stairway to abolishment. Right to the left was the kitchen area. Kind of the same set up as my room except I only had one story and no stairs.

"Here, I'll get you guys some tea," Sakura offered.

I made my way to the living room and chose to sit next to Tomoyo rather than anywhere near Sakura's brother. Even though he kept his gaze intently at the television, I felt a dark aura that told me that he was watching me . . . watching me like a prey.

It makes me wonder if they had dead bodies in the basement.

"Here you go!" Sakura came back with two cup of freshly brewed tea and handed them to me and Tomoyo.

I took a sip of mine. Green tea. Hot, but good. Coming from China, tea is a big part of a usual person's life. Having tea from someone else made me skeptical. I took another sip, swirled my tongue around and swooshed it in my mouth, savoring and testing it. Water was at the right brewing temperature, not too much tea mixture . . . just plain green tea, but it was perfect.

"So what made you decide to come visit?" Sakura asked. She took a seat next to her brother.

"Li-kun wanted to come and see you and where you lived, so I decided to show him," Tomoyo said.

Immediately I did an instant gag as if I choked on my tea and yelled, "_What?_" Right away I felt a dark energy and I knew exactly where it came from. When I looked over at Tomoyo, his gaze was now on me and with the look of a cold blood killer.

"Awwee," exclaimed Sakura. "How sweet of you, Syaoran-kun."

"W—what, hey now—" I turned to Tomoyo, "—you! Don't make me say things that I didn't say!"

Sakura giggled. "It's okay Syaoran-kun. I know Tomoyo was just kidding. She did this to Eriol once too."

I managed to calm down and looked from Sakura to Tomoyo. The two were laughing as if they were giving each other high-fives in their head. "O—oh . . . really?"

"But since you two are here, why not stay for dinner? It's my brother's time to cook tonight and he's an awesome cook!"

I could tell already. Touya was going to put rat poison in my food.

"N—no that's fine. I'll just go eat at home—"

"What?" Touya broke in. "Afraid I'm gonna put rat poison in your food?"

This guy . . . is really starting to scare me.

"Fine, I'll stay."

Sakura smiled. "Great!"

**The Taste of Salt**

"Itadakimasu," we all said.

Dinner was fillet salmon with fried vegetables and a calamari. Udon soup was to the side and rice was in a small Japanese-style bowl. Everything was good. But I couldn't eat without looking at Touya, who kept staring at me as if he was waiting for me to take _the bite_ and fall dead on the floor.

When we finished, though, I was alive and well. I don't want to say that I was surprised as how good the food was, but it was one of the better dinners I've had since I've been in Japan.

After we ate, Sakura wanted to show something to Tomoyo so the two of them ended up scattering upstairs—leaving me with the older brother of death. I have to admit, I was quite scared. I've been very uncomfortable the entire time while eating. Things were quite for a moment until Touya breathed a sighed and said,

"Come on, help me with the dishes at least."

For once his tone of voice was normal; not _I want to kill you_.

"O—okay," I mumbled.

So we started the dishes. He washed while I rinsed. Things were quite quiet. So quiet that I actually was able to rethink about that image that I've always had. Who was that girl? Why was I holding her? Why was it raining? And why was there blood? It was questions that I've always kept on asking myself in hopes of maybe, just maybe, I'll be able to remember.

My train of thoughts were interrupted when Touya spoke.

"So you're new, right?" he asked.

"Yeah," I replied. "Don't quite know my way around yet."

"My sister your friend?"

I thought that was kind of a dumb question. "Uh . . . yeah. I suppose."

When I thought about it, that was actually the first time that I've acknowledged Sakura being a friend of mine. I never really thought about someone who I once told to _drop dead_ to become a friend of mine. Though I didn't really like to admit that I considered them my friend was because I just didn't care . . . at first.

"Good," said Touya. "But don't get too close to her."

My heart jumped like a dark secret that wasn't supposed to be revealed was just revealed. I slowed my rinsing and eventually came to a stop as Touya piled another dish on to me.

"So it really is true then, huh?" I muttered quietly.

Suddenly Touya stopped washing dishes too. "I don't . . . know what you're talking about." His voice low, quiet, and kind of sad.

We finished the dishes slowly and quietly. Not saying a single word to each other. But I couldn't help but to think about what he said. _I don't know what you're talking about_. What? What did he mean by that? Was he hiding something else? Or did he really not know what I was talking about? And if he didn't, then does that mean Sakura isn't ill? But no . . . that wouldn't make sense to why everyone at school would treat her like a princess though.

When Sakura and Tomoyo came down, Tomoyo and I were ready to head out. We made our way outside and Sakura saw us out.

"Thanks for coming by, guys!" Sakura exclaimed. She smiled and seemed really happy.

"Of course," replied Tomoyo. She held the bucket of roses for her mom in her hands still.

Sakura turned to me. "Now you know where I live. Maybe hopefully we get to see your home sometime too."

I forced a small quiet laugh. "Oh, uhh . . . yeah. Maybe one day. Well, see ya."

"Goodnight, Sakura-chan," said Tomoyo.

"Goodnight you two!"

With that, Tomoyo and I were off.

**The Taste of Salt**

When we were riding the bus on the way, things were quiet. I was quiet. Usually I'm always quiet, but this time, I felt like I was extra quiet. When I thought back to it, I noticed that I never saw Sakura's parents. They never mentioned their parents too. Were they working? Did they even live there? Touya may have seemed older but he didn't seem too much older than Sakura and I. Now that was really interesting.

"Hey . . . Tomoyo," I started. Tomoyo sat next to me on the bus.

"Yes?" she replied.

"I . . ." before I could finish, the bus had stopped and Tomoyo got up.

"Oh, I'm sorry Li-kun, maybe we can talk tomorrow at school? It's my stop here."

I looked at her. I felt like even if this stop wasn't her stop, I wouldn't have been able to ask where Sakura's parents were. I felt like I didn't really want to know . . . not trying to make Sakura sound like her house is full of evil or anything. I just felt it was . . . rude.

"No, it's okay. Goodnight, then," I said instead.

Tomoyo smiled. "Goodnight, Li-kun. See you at school tomorrow." She carried her basket of roses and left.

It was dark out. The moon was barely out and I was alone in the bus. Pictures of that girl I was holding flashed in me again. I shook my head. Why don't these flashes go away? If they were bothering me so much then why don't they just help me remember? I took a deep breath in and closed my eyes. I looked outside to see whatever lights I could catch and tried to enjoy my long bus ride back home.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary:** Eriol, a prodigy in the making who is always bullied; Syaoran, a transfer student from China with a troubled past and no friends; and Sakura, a beautiful girl full of nothing but optimism and always half full rather than half empty. As if life wasn't hard enough, when their lives intermingle and two boys fall for a girl, who's only supposed to live until her graduation . . . well, this is their story.

By: Shinigami 42-42-564's Friend

_Wednesday, October 6, 2010_

Forty minutes. It was forty minutes. That's how long it took me to go from my house back to the Venus mall across town by bus. I don't know what proctored me to go there again. On second thought, I don't know why I went home first after school and then decided to go there. Sakura and the other two asked me to stay after school to hangout again, but I refused . . . for once, I refused and actually kept to my word.

I actually got the chance to explore the mall this time. The lighting on each floor was exquisite—not too bright but not too dark. Every restaurant within the mall, unless it was a fast-food place, seemed romantic and expensive. I walked passed a strawberry chocolate factory store and one chocolate dipped strawberry was . . . well let's just say even though I had the money it wouldn't be worth the money for me.

Money. I still wondered how I got money—or how much I was given. I guess I really didn't check. I guess I never really cared as well since I never really bought anything. I've just been surviving on little snacks at home and the foot that Tomoyo's been giving at school.

I had the money . . . so I decided to indulge myself in a nice family restaurant on the lower floor—not as fancy looking as the others but still nowhere near _cheap_ looking. _The Flytrap's Cove_, it was called. When I entered, I was greeted by two people: a man with tall sturdy shoulders and white hair. He had glasses and smiled like . . . like an angel—honestly. The other was a girl a pigtailed girl that was about a foot shorter than the guy—about me height I suppose. She had long pigtails and her hair was a light brown to rose-like color. The two dressed quite elegantly.

"Hello," The girl said.

"Welcome to The Flytrap's Cove," said the guy. "Just yourself?"

I nodded. "Yes, please."

"Right this way," said the guy and proceeded into a direction.

I followed him. Inside was a lot darker than the mall itself. The place was lit with only lanterns in the aisles with a dim paper shaded light bulb over each table. There was quite a few families here. Honestly I kind of felt lonely being by myself, but whatever.

"Here you are, your server will be right with you," said the buy with white hair and he left.

About a minute passed of me sitting and staring around before the server came up to my table and said,

"Welcome, my name is Touya, can I get you anything to start off with—" He stopped midway and when I looked at him I finally understood why. It was _him_, Sakura's brother. "Oh . . . it's you," he ended finally.

I glowered. What? He works here? Of the hundreds of restaurants that there was, I had to choose the one that _he_ worked at? In my head I imagined myself just slapping myself over and over again.

"Oh, it's you," I repeated dumbly. "You work here?" I asked . . . another dumb question.

"Well," he started, "I do need money," and he handed me the menu.

Yeah, well obviously. But I guess that wasn't his fault for answering my question. Anyway I looked at the menu that he gave me and looked at the drink page. There was quite a bit. I wasn't in the mood for pop, but I _was_ in the mood for something juicy.

"I'll take an orange juice with water on the side . . . please," I said.

"Would you like a lid on the juice so you don't spill?"

"_Hey!_" I exclaimed.

"Just kidding, an orange juice and water coming up."

I pouted as he walked away.

The menu was quite huge itself. A six page menu both front and back. The first two page was appetizers and the next three pages were the main course. From the looks of the place, it was a mixture of a lot of different types of food. One side of the first main course page had traditional American hamburgers and sandwiches, the flip side was soups of all kind. The next page was Italian pastas and such, and the rest were Japanese traditional food from seafood, the stir fries, and even omulettes. The last two pages were filled with desserts and alcohol.

When Touya returned, he handed me a large glass of orange juice and a cup of water like I had asked for. He seemed reluctant to give me them. I wondered if he was always like this to customers or not.

"Did you find anything you'd like to eat?" he asked with his pen and notepad down.

I frantically scanned through the menu. There was just too much to get. Of course, I didn't really care for anything that wasn't shown as a picture, so it made things even harder.

After about a minute of failed searching, Touya said, "Don't worry, take your time." He said it sarcastically by the way.

"What do you like to eat?" I asked.

He looked at me with a curious face. "Rat poison."

I glowered. "No, come on, seriously, this is my first time here!"

He sighed and turned a page on the menu. "I make a lot of these at home already so I don't really get any of the usual food we eat. But I like the Seafood Pasta with a side of miso soup."

The seafood pasta was the most expensive pasta. I wasn't sure if he was just trying to make me spend a jip load of money or if he was actually suggesting it. "Alright, I'll give that a shot," I said.

"Rat poison it is," he said and scribbled things onto his note.

"Hey!"

He took my menu and said, "It'll be a moment, just relax."

Relax until my doom I assumed. When he left, I lowered my head and closed my eyes due to the lack of sleep I had the other night. The same haunting images haunted me still and the glass music box just keep getting harder and harder to rebuild.

When I opened my eyes, I opened them to the sound of Touya's voice. "Kid, kid," he kept saying so I woke.

"Oh, that was fast," I said. He handed me my plate of pasta. The plate was quite large, being nearly a foot in diameter and pile pretty decently high. The pasta was angel-haired pasta and the seafood ranged wide from crab meat to octopus. Broccoli and Italian bread on the side of the plate as well. The miso soup was a bowl four diameters across and smelled delicious. Honestly my mouth was drooling so much that I had to use a napkin to wipe myself up.

"Well it's been ten minutes, I guess."

"Ten minutes?" I swore I only closed my eyes for about thirty seconds. Wow, I must be tired.

"Well, enjoy. I'll be back later," said Touya and he left.

I indulged myself, starting first with the miso soup. It was hot, and probably burned some of my taste buds, but I didn't care. It was amazing. Then I forked into the pasta. The most delicious thing I've ever had. Honestly it made Tomoyo's lunch taste like crap—figuratively.

Halfway through the meal, I was beginning to feel bloated. But I didn't care, the food was too delicious. When I finally finished, about ten minutes later, Touya came back with the check.

"Actually, can I have another order of this and the miso soup?" I asked.

Touya stared at me like I was the stupidest thing he's ever seen. "You're still hungry?"

"No!" I exclaimed. "It's for later . . . I really like it."

Touya sighed and if he was really reluctant to take my order. "Alright, a to-go coming up."

About ten minutes later again he came back with a to-go box in a bag. He handed me the check. When I looked at it, my eyes bulged, not because it was expensive, but because . . . there was no price indicated.

"Where—d—did you give me the wrong receipt?" I asked.

Touya looked away. "Meals on me—since you're still new around here."

"O—oh . . . thanks."

He turned to me and this time with an evil face said, "But I am expecting a large tip!"

My left eye twitched. He just wanted money for himself. Regardless, I tipped him for half the amount of the food I had—which was an ungodly amount still. I kind of felt thankful that I didn't have to pay for the whole thing.

When I left outside the restaurant and back into the mall, I tried looking for the time. Dumbly I forgot that malls don't have clocks in them.

"Damnit . . ."

I turned back around to try and ask someone but then I saw Touya outside of his work uniform coming out from the restaurant. Next to him was the guy with white hair and glasses.

"Oh, you're off?" I asked.

"Kind of why I thought about not taking your order," he said to me.

The guy with white hair laughed, "Oh, you two know each other?"

"No," both Touya and I said in unison.

"By the way, I'm Tsukishiro Yukito, a friend of Touya," the white-haired guy said offered a handshake.

I shook his hand and introduced myself as well and the school I went to.

"Ah, so you must know little Sakura-chan too then!" said Yukito.

"Y—you know her?" I asked.

"Of course! I've known her since she was just a little baby. I'm close friends with the family, we go way back."

I was about to ask if he also knew about Sakura's condition. But I caught myself before I even started.

"Say, would you like to come with Touya and I? We're going to do a quick errand around the mall here."

Touya looked and Yukito as if he was telling me the biggest mistake of his life. "What, hey! Don't be inviting other people to _my_ errand!"

Yukito smiled and looked at him. "Oh come on. The more the merrier, right?"

Touya seemed to choke on his words and sighed, "Ugh fine." He then looked at me. "You can come if you want. I just need to get a present for someone."

_A present?_ I thought. "Is it for Daidouji-san's mother's birthday?"

Touya and Yukito looked at me with surprise. "Oh, you know?" Touya asked.

"Well, that's all I know. She never really told me anything else other than it's her mom's birthday on Friday."

"Oh . . . is that so?" said Touya. His tone of voice changed like he was expecting me to know more . . . like I wasn't informed on something important. But I discarded that out because I just sounded stupid.

So we went around until Touya entered a toyshop. I was actually quite surprised that we came in here. I didn't expect a grown woman to be fond of toys. The shop was quite huge. Not as huge as the other stores, but enough for little kids to run around and play with small sample play sets that were on the floor. The toys ranged from plush toys to action figures. Pretty much anything a kid would want was in here.

"A toyshop?" I asked.

Yukito nodded and explained to me as we followed Touya around. "The Daidouji family actually own their own toy company. Not this one in particular. Tomoyo-chan's mom loves toys. That's why she started her own company in the first place."

"Ohhhh," I hummed.

We stopped in front of an aisle with shelves full of teddy bears. Both Touya and Yukito chose out their own bear and we headed to the register to buy. I felt bad. I was actually thinking that maybe I should buy something as well even though I didn't know her.

"Maybe I should get something too," I said.

Both Yukito and Touya looked and me. "No, you don't have to, it's fine," said Touya.

"Don't sweat it," said Yukito with a smile. "You don't really know her so you don't have to do anything."

I cocked my head to the side. "I suppose."

**The Taste of Salt**

When we were done, we said our goodbyes and headed our own separate ways. I got lost a couple times trying to find the exit I took to get in, but once I did, I took my forty minute bus ride back to my place.

When I entered the main lobby of my apartment, which looked more like the lobby of a fancy hotel, I went to check my mail. Usually it was empty, but this time it actually had something in it—a small box.

I waited until I got into my home before sitting on my kitchen table and opened the box. It was a cellphone . . . an Iphone to be exact. I remember a lot of people at school having Iphones as well. I guess this was the trend. On the bottom of the box was a letter. I opened it and read it.

_Dear Syaoran-chan,_

_ How's Japan going for you? I hope you're doing great! Your sisters and I really miss you and can't wait for you to return. I hope you're feeling well and not too sick. Everyone back in China is doing great. Well anyway, I got you a phone just so you can keep in touch with us and any friends that you meet over here in Japan. Well, I'm sorry this is such a short letter, but I have to go now. Be save and have fun, okay?_

_Love, mom_

I closed the letter and stared at my new phone. I was actually kind of disappointed in the letter. I was expecting a letter telling me why I was here in Japan by myself in the first place. Why I can't remember anything. Why I have these images and if she knew that girl that keep popping up in my head.

Thinking about this got me angry once again. My breathing began to get harder and I was about to rage. I close my eyes and told myself to calm down. After I calmed a little bit, I left my phone on the table and went into my room to do what I do every single night.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary:** Eriol, a prodigy in the making who is always bullied; Syaoran, a transfer student from China with a troubled past and no friends; and Sakura, a beautiful girl full of nothing but optimism and always half full rather than half empty. As if life wasn't hard enough, when their lives intermingle and two boys fall for a girl, who's only supposed to live until her graduation . . . well, this is their story.

**a/n:** and here is chapter 7! Sorry if the story seems to be moving a bit slow. I'm really skeptical about the pace of stories and I really hate it when drama or slice-of-life type stories all of a sudden jump into a sudden climax. I like to try and develop my characters appropriately based on how long I believe my stories will be (I believe a good example would be my short-fic **"The Howling Wolf in Cherry Storms"** how I developed my characters that matched the length of the story. And if you guys haven't read that, please read it! Everyone has so much good things to say about that story! It's on this account too).

I won't say how long this story will be (mainly because I'm debating how long it should be at the moment) but hopefully you guys are enjoying my story so far. I will say, though, that things are beginning to pick up a bit : ) so hopefully you guys enjoy the ride that I hope I'll be taking you on. Don't forget to review my chapters and tell me what you think so far! Thanks and enjoy!

By: Shinigami 42-42-564's Friend

_Thursday, October 7, 2010_

I don't know why, but I always found class boring. When the teacher lectured, it sounded like the same thing over and over again. Eriol, however, enjoyed it or forced himself to enjoy it. He spent every minute of class taking down notes. Right hand going down and left, head going down and up to the chalkboard, and pages flipping every other minute.

Everyone else was in between me and him.

When the lunch bell rang, everyone got out from their seats and proceeded to their lunch doings. I, like always, made my way outside to my usual spot. After I passed a couple classes in the hallway I heard a "Hey you!" I wasn't sure if that _Hey you_ was for me so I didn't care to turn. As I took another few steps, the voice—which was a girl voice—called out again.

Finally I stopped and turned to see if that voice talking to me. A girl with light brown pigtailed hair with a hint of rose-color made her way up to me. I felt like I've seen her before, but I couldn't remember when or where.

"It's you!" She exclaimed.

"It's . . . me," I repeated.

"You came into my restaurant the other day at the mall, The Flytrap's Cove, remember?"

It took me a moment to register what she said, but when I did, it all clicked. She was the other greeter next to Yukito.

"O—oh! Yeah, you were next to that guy when I came in," I said.

The girl laughed and nodded. "Glad you remember. I didn't expect you to be here in this school. It would've made things a lot easier if you had your uniform on."

I remember yesterday before going to the mall, I had switched out of my uniform. "Y—yeah, I switched before going there."

"Oh yeah, my name's Mihara Chiharu, I'm a third year. From the looks of your uniform, so are you."

"Y—yeah, Li Syaoran." I was really low on words here.

"Now that I think about it," she said, "I sometimes see you with Sakura-chan, don't I?"

"You're friends with her?"

"Not especially close, but we're in the same class."

"Oh . . ."

Chiharu smiled. Her smile was quite beautiful actually. Elegant as any other girls smile I've ever seen.

"Well, I'm going to go get some lunch. I'll see you around, Li-kun!" she said.

"Alright then." After that, we separated.

That was an awkward encounter. I was hoping to have said a bit more, maybe even drag he conversation a bit longer than it was, but all of that failed.

I made my way outside into the courtyard again. As always, a picnic blanket was set up right in front of my bench and Tomoyo, Eriol, and Sakura were sitting on it with picnic baskets and other fancy stuff, ready to eat.

I sighed at the sight and sat down in between Sakura and Tomoyo. Sometimes I tried sitting in between Sakura and Eriol just to get him to be jealous, but he started to learn and started sitting close enough to Sakura so there wasn't a gap I could sneak in.

"You're a bit late!" Sakura exclaimed.

"S—sorry," I said. "I ran into Mihara-san."

"Chiharu-chan? You know her?"

"No," I said shaking my head. "I just ran into her at the mall yesterday."

"Ah, so you went to The Flytrap's Cove? My brother works there too!"

"Yeah, I met him too."

"And . . . Yukito-san works there too!"

Sakura slapped her cheeks with her hands and puffed them upwards. She seemed to have been fanaticizing about Yukito in her head. Did she like the guy or something? Either way, Eriol looked kind of jealous of the thought of Sakura thinking about him.

"Oh my, there she goes again, dreaming about Yukito-san again," said Tomoyo. This really got Eriol flustered with jealousy, I could tell easily because he began to eat his bento without even looking at Sakura. Not only that, but he was quietly mumbling stuff to himself as well.

After humming Yukito's name a couple more times, Sakura began to lean towards my side and eventually landed on my shoulder. This caught me off guard. I wasn't used to this. I honestly didn't really feel comfortable with her leaning on me like this. I looked at Eriol and he immediately made some kind of weird choking noise as he saw her leaning on me.

I tried shoving her off, but she just kept leaning onto me. Every time I pushed her up and she came back down, she seemed to have added extra weight. For a small girl it seemed to have been some sort of dead weight or something like she wasn't alive and just a corpse.

"Hey now," I said, "get off me, I want to eat too."

I looked towards Tomoyo for assistance. But she just stared. That was then when I noticed something about Tomoyo. She wasn't laughing. She wasn't smiling. This was definitely a time for her to be smiling and laughing, but she wasn't. Instead, her face was quite serious and showed worry.

"Li-kun," said Tomoyo suddenly, "check her breath."

"W—what?" I exclaimed, but I didn't argue back much after. I held Sakura up and, as her head bobbed to the side, held a finger in front of her nose . . . no air. "Hey, wake up . . . wake up . . ."

"Sakura-chan?" Eriol suddenly sounded worried as well.

"Li-kun!" Tomoyo yelled in a panicked voice. Suddenly my heart raced and I began to have a panicked feeling. "Carry her, _quick_, we have to get to the nurse's office _now!_"

**The Taste of Salt**

I didn't know where exactly the nurse's office was because I never quite had to use it yet, so I carried Sakura in my arms while Eriol and Tomoyo led the way. We ran our fastest. Because it was still during the lunch hour, there was quite a bunch of people in the hallways and lobbies. Each one stared at us with worry as we ran pass them.

There were three nurses' offices in the school, one on each floor for convenience. But the biggest and most _Emergency_ required office was on the first floor—luckily, because I wasn't sure if I'd make it carrying someone up flights of stairs.

When we got to the nurses office, Tomoyo slid the door open with force and yelled, "Help! Kangochi-san!"

Without even another second, a lady with long purple hair and glasses put on her stethoscope and wheeled over to a medical bed and said, "Quickly, put her down here." It was like she had been waiting for this moment.

Without hesitating, I did what she told me and set Sakura down on the bed. I stepped back with Tomoyo and Eriol. I was frantic. Honestly, I was scared. I didn't know what was happening. I didn't know what to do. Did Sakura really just fall unconscious? I looked into the faces of Tomoyo and Eriol and they both had the same faces. Their faces were worried, scared, and fearful . . . but at the same time it also said, "Not again." Were they really used to something like this? Is Sakura used to something like this?

I don't know what the nurse did. But she stuck needles into Sakura and hooked her up onto a couple monitors. I guess one was a heart monitor and the other was to measure pulse and blood pressure. For a nurse's office, the machines and medicine here were hi-tech . . . almost hospital level equipment . . . no . . . they _are_ hospital equipment.

"Kangochi-san here is a nurse from Tomoeda's Emergency Hospital. She, and this room here, was build a couple years ago specifically for Sakura-chan," said Tomoyo. "Well . . . this room's used for anyone with a big emergency, but a lot of the times, Sakura-chan's the only patient."

I looked at Tomoyo. This room and this nurse were here because of Sakura? Was this entire school build and changed to be around Sakura? Is her illness really that bad? Is it really true?

Eriol pushed up his glasses and sounded as if he was holding back tears. "Every once in a while . . . Sakura-chan collapses with no warnings. This is the first time this school year though."

"What?" I turned to Eriol."You mean she'll have more incidents like this?"

Both Tomoyo and Eriol slowly nodded.

"She'll be fine," said the nurse, "She's breathing calmly now." But she didn't wake up.

The end of lunch bell rang.

"You three should head back up to class, I'll watch her from here. I'll call her brother to come pick her up as well."

"Thank you so much, Kangochi-san," praised Tomoyo.

The three of us went to the door. When we slid it open, a crowd of people were outside as if they were waiting for us.

"Is Sakura-chan okay?" someone asked.

Tomoyo nodded. "She's fine for now."

"Thank goodness," someone else said.

The crowd breathed a sigh of relief and began making their way back to class. I was about to follow Eriol back but then I stopped and stared back at Sakura who was still in care with the nurse. I watched until Eriol turned the corner before going back into the nurse's office.

"Of all the years I've never seen you before," said the nurse. She then giggled. "But then I guess that's a good thing if I never see you."

I cleared my throat. "Oh . . . I'm new this semester. I'm a transfer from China. Li Syaoran."

"Oh, so you're the one she was talking about."

I flinched. "What? She talks about me?"

The nurse nodded. "Sakura-chan has weekly check-ups every Monday mornings with me. She mentioned you once or twice—her newest friend."

"O—oh . . ."

"Though I have to admit you're kind of lucky that she's a kind-hearted girl . . . it's not everyday someone decides to still be friends with you after you tell them to drop dead." I swallowed hard. The nurse gave out another giggle. "It's okay. If she's your friend, that's all that matters. I'm sure you care about her now too anyway . . . you're the only one here after the bell."

"Well, I was just wondering . . . what _is_ her illness?" I asked hoping for an answer.

The nurse sighed. "No one knows. All we know is that slowly, her body's shutting down on her. Like Eriol-kun said, she falls unconscious every once in a while, she'll start to get sick at random moments—sometimes even dangerously sick. She even had to go through a kidney transplant surgery a couple years ago."

"R—really?"

The nurse nodded. "Well, I have to call her brother now. I'll be back." She wheeled into a corner of the room and pulled white curtains around area.

When she left, the room got quiet. But it gave me time to think. I've always contemplated that maybe Sakura's illness was just a hoax, or that it wasn't' as bad as everyone's been saying it was. But now . . . it looked like it really was bad and not a hoax . . . it was scary. I thought . . . someone was almost on the verge of death on me . . . or at least Tomoyo and Eriol made it sound like it. But they were used to it. They were scared and worried just like I was, but they acted fast and knew what to do . . . I just hesitated.

A few minutes later, Sakura began to move. Her eyes opened and she weakly looked around the room. "Oh, I'm here again," she mumbled to herself. This situation apparently wasn't a surprise to her. She turned her head just slightly and saw me. "Oh . . . hello Syaoran-kun. This is your first time seeing me like this huh? I'm sorry you had to see me like this. I'm sorry if I caused you any trouble." Her voice was mellow . . . soft . . . dying.

"Oh . . . no it's fine," I said.

"Did you . . . did you already know . . . about me?"

"Um . . . well, yeah."

Sakura forced a laugh. "Oh that Tomoyo-chan. Always telling people when I keep telling her not to."

"How are you feeling?" I asked.

"I'm fine. I'm used to this."

That didn't really help _me_ feel any better.

"What day is it today?" she asked.

"Thursday," I answered.+

Suddenly she had a disappointed face. "Darn it. I still haven't gotten a present for Tomoyo-chan's mom." Her voice began to sound a bit more normal.

"You know it's her birthday tomorrow?" I asked.

Sakura looked at me with a smile. "Of course I do, dummy! Why wouldn't I? I also remember it because the most magical day of my life happened about a week before her birthday."

"Really? What happened?"

Sakura sighed and waited about a minute before saying, "Two years ago, I had failing kidneys. When we applied for a kidney transplant, I was too far down the list . . . I wouldn't be getting one until it was too late for me. But then suddenly, there was a kidney that opened up to me. And so I was able to get the surgery done a few days later. If it wasn't for that kidney transplant, I wouldn't have been able to be with Tomoyo and her mom for her birthday party. It was one of the best nights of my life."

Just like the nurse said. The kidney transplant. After hearing that story, it made me smile. It made me smile because it was heartwarming. To think that Sakura could've not been here in front of me now, but because of a miracle kidney transplant, she was still alive.

"I miss Tomoyo's mom though," Sakura continued. "After her birthday party that year, she moved to America to expand her toy company, so I haven't seen her since."

"Really? So Daidouji-san decided to stay here instead of move with her mom then?"

Sakura nodded. "Yeah, she and her butler stayed. So now we just send our presents to her through mail."

"Hey, if you want, I can get something for her in your name!" I offered. This offer honestly came out of nowhere. I also felt bad because she wasn't able to get anything in her current condition.

"Really?" Sakura seemed excited and happy at my offer. "That'd be great if you can! Thank you!"

"D—don't think of it as too much, though. Think of it as repayment for feeding me that one time."

Sakura giggled. "Oh, that's fine! Hmm last time I just wrote her a letter . . . Oh! I know exactly what to get her!" Sakura gestured me closer. When I got closer, she whispered into my ear.

I quickly pulled away and whimpered a, "_Haaaaaahh?_"

Sakura laughed. "Trust me, she loves them! They were her favorite shows back then!"

"I . . . I suppose . . . fine, I'll get one. First thing I do tomorrow after school"

"Thanks!"

After the nurse got a hold of Touya, I went back up to class as Sakura had to rest. About an hour later, Touya came to pick her up to go home. How did I know? Because everyone in the classroom came rushing to my window side of the room when someone yelled, "Hey, Sakura-chan's leaving!" Was this girl really that famous here at this school? Was she really cared for that much? Did everyone seriously know about her sickness? If so . . . why was she only close friends with Eriol and Tomoyo? I even began to wonder, with all of these people that knew her long before me, why am I the one to usually be with them and not anyone else?

**The Taste of Salt**

_Friday, October 8, 2010_

A Kamen Rider action toy.

That's what Sakura wanted me to get. I was reluctant to buy one, but I decided that I had to. So after school, I rushed my way back to the Venus mall and mazed my way around and found one of the many toy stores. I ended up buying a Kamen Rider Decade figurine. Honestly I wasn't the biggest fan of Kamen Riders. In China they weren't the thing to watch, but I guess here in Japan they were everything.

Today Sakura didn't come to school. I wasn't surprised though, I guess. After what happened to her the other day, I wouldn't expect her to be in school.

While trying to deliver the toy I bought I made one mistake: I forgot that I had no idea where in America Tomoyo's mom lived. So I had to find Tomoyo to help me mail this to her. When I found my way out of the mall, I thought about which direction Tomoyo's house was. I honestly didn't know. I had no clue.

But if luck ever struck me hard, it struck me now. A bus pulled up at the other end of the block, and Tomoyo walked out of it. _No way_ I thought. _My luck just can't get any better_. I started to sprint towards her. "Daidouji-san!" I called. She didn't hear me. I slowed to a jog when two other guys approached her. The two guys were Touya and Yukito, both holding their bear presents that they bought for Tomoyo's mother. That was when I noticed that Tomoyo had her basket of flowers that she had bought for her mother as well. Were they meeting together to mail the presents out today?

As the three disappeared around the corner, I went back to a sprint and zoomed pass people in my way. When I turned the corner that they disappeared on, I caught then getting onto another bus. "Hey, hold up!" I yelled, but they didn't seem to hear me. When I got to them, they had already left on the bus. I was already out of breath, but I had to follow them.

I found a bus directory on the bus stop bench and found the bus that just stopped. I looked up its next destination. I wasn't quite sure where it was so I asked a local and they told me exactly how to get to it. It wasn't too far from here so I started jogging again.

It took seven minutes, but the next stop was only about a mile and a half down. By the time I got there, Tomoyo and the two guys had already gotten off because I could see them walking in the distance ahead of me. They crossed a couple streets and entered through a fancy steel gate at the corner of another street.

Tired as I was, I slowed down and walked the rest of the way, wondering what they were doing and where they were going. When I made it to the steel gates that they entered, there was a large engravement on a tablet on one of the steel doors. It read, "_Tomoeda's Grand Garden._" A garden?

In the middle of the doors was a small stone trail that lead inside the _garden_. I followed it and destined into this mysterious place. This was definitely another part of Tomoeda that I've never seen before. As if traveling forty minutes from my house to the mall wasn't far enough.

I followed the trial and ventured deeper into the garden. The sun was still pretty high up into the sky, but because it was the afternoon, it would be setting soon. "I'd better find them before it gets too late," I told myself.

The stone path split into many other directions, but I just held my breath and stayed on the straight path. I had already lost the three. The deeper I went into the garden, though, the more uncomfortable I became. The garden didn't really look much like a garden. Sure, there were tons of flowers, but they were all bundled together—half were already dead as if they'd been sitting there for a long time.

There were also a lot of tablets . . . stone tablets that stuck out of the ground. I twirled around once and took a scan around this _large_ garden. Everywhere, I saw a plateau of stone tablets that were surrounded with flowers. Everything looked beautiful . . . extremely beautiful. But for some reason I just didn't quite feel that I was as beautiful as it looked.

"Li-kun?" I heard a voice behind me.

I turned to see Tomoyo standing in front of me. "Oh, I've been looking for you. I wanted to give this to you, it's from . . ." I trailed off as Tomoyo looked like she wasn't even paying attention to me. Instead, she had her eyes heavily to the side. "Hey . . . Daidouji-san . . . what is this place? The _Grand Garden_ doesn't really look like a garden . . ." I stopped myself.

It all made sense now. Everything I saw just seemed to suddenly click. I felt so stupid. This was something that even the youngest of kids could've gotten and understood faster than I had. The gravestones, the flowers, the dead flowers, and the Grand Garden . . . Tomoeda's Grand Garden—

Was a cemetery.

"D—Daidouji-san . . ." Tomoyo still had her eyes gazing toward the side. "Don't tell me . . . your mom is . . ."


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary:** Eriol, a prodigy in the making who is always bullied; Syaoran, a transfer student from China with a troubled past and no friends; and Sakura, a beautiful girl full of nothing but optimism and always half full rather than half empty. As if life wasn't hard enough, when their lives intermingle and two boys fall for a girl, who's only supposed to live until her graduation . . . well, this is their story.

**a/n:** Yay! I just got back from an anime detour xD! Boy it was fun! Well anyways...hello and here is chapter 8! Hopefully you guys are enjoying this story and hopefully you guys enjoy this chapter as well! Don't forget to spend a little bit of your time at the end of the chapter to drop me a review of what you think so far :)

By: Shinigami 42-42-564's Friend

_Friday, October 8, 2010_

I followed Tomoyo for a minute as she lead me through the Grand Garden. My stomach become eerie as I passed gravestone to gravestone. Each burial I could see I read the names and looked at the date of birth and date of death.

One person that caught my eye lived from 1988 to 2008. Right away, I guessed, and I was sure of, how he died. It was something that involved alcohol. How do I know? Japan's drinking age requirement was twenty. He was twenty years old when he died . . . date of death was also the same as the date of birth.

I knew we were close when I saw Touya and Yukito standing next to a rather large stone tablet. Flowers were put in a vase and set all around it. There were numerous items—some dirty—around the front of the stone. There were two bears that looked just like the ones that Touya and Yukito bought. The flowers that Tomoyo had bought earlier this week rested on top of the stone. On the ground in front of it were multiple folded papers . . . letters . . .

"Kid," started Touya, "You're here?"

"Syaoran-kun?" said Yukito. The two seemed quite surprised to see me. Honestly, I would be surprised to see me too.

I was about to say something but Tomoyo stepped up to the tombstone and knelt down. She held her hands together and bowed once.

"Mother," she started, "Happy Birthday. Touya-san and Yukito-san are here too . . . along with a new friend of mine—" I looked at the date of death on the stone; it was 2008, just about a week after today. The name was Daidouji Sonomi . . . "—I miss you, I really do. So does everyone here. We bought some presents for you again. Hopefully you get them. Oh . . . don't worry, Sakura-chan's doing just fine. She had a little incident yesterday but she's all better now. She had to stay home today from school so we had to eat lunch without her." Tomoyo's voice cracked up; soon she began to cry. "Momma . . . I really miss you—" I looked over at Touya and Yukito. The two, too, looked like they were about to cry. "—I dream about you every night. You're the last thing I think about when I sleep and the first thing I think about when I wake up. I'm sorry I haven't been visiting you as often as I used to. I've just been busy. But I'll try . . . I'll try to visit you, I promise! Okay? Okay . . . I love you, mother . . . see you in a little bit."

At the end of the long speech, something sparkling caught the corner of my eye. I shook my head, thinking that it was something in the air that landed on my eyes. I turned to the side and in the sky I could've swore I saw some sort of ball of shining light. It disappeared literally the moment I thought I saw something, so I couldn't be sure.

But that thought was discarded immediately as Tomoyo got up. Yukito came to her and hugged her, comforting her as she cried in his arms.

I clenched my fists, almost crushing the figurine I was holding. I was confused . . . her mother was dead? Why? How? I didn't want to ruin the moment . . . I really didn't . . . but I had to ask,

"What's going on?" The three stared at me and gave me the _I guess we're going to have to tell him_ look. Tomoyo's eyes glittered with tears. I thought that her eyes shined orange, but it was only because the sun was beginning to set. "Daidouji-san . . ." my voice began to get shaky, "You're mother's not . . . really dead, is she? B—but I thought—" I stopped, biting my lips and turning to the side. Confusion everywhere. What Sakura told me, wasn't it true? Wasn't Tomoyo's mom over in America expanding her toy company? "I thought that your mom was over in America . . . that's what—"

"That's what we told Sakura," said Touya interrupting me. Yukito and Tomoyo kind of looked away as if they had nothing to do with what Touya said. "That's what . . . we told my little sister."

I dropped the Kamen Rider toy that I held. "But why?" I exclaimed. My voice had a mixture of hopelessness and fury. "Why would you tell her something like that? Filling her up with lies? She's your sister!—" I turned to Tomoyo, "—she's your best friend! What made—what made your mom's death so _bad_ that you had to hide it from—" I choked and stopped my words. I took a moment and connected the pieces of the puzzle. Tomoyo's mom died two years ago after her birthday . . . that was the last time Sakura saw her. A kidney suddenly opened up to Sakura, saving her . . . "The kidney transplant . . ." I slowly said, "that kidney that opened up . . . it was your mom, Daidouji-san . . . right?"

It took a moment, but within Yukito's arms, Tomoyo slowly nodded, still in tears.

A quiet sigh came from Touya and he stepped up a bit. "I'm sure you've heard from Sakura already, but let me tell you our side then . . . a couple years ago, both of Sakura's kidneys began to fail out of nowhere and needed an emergency kidney transplant surgery. But when we applied for one, she was too far down the list. She wasn't going to live long enough to see the surgery happen." Touya stopped for a moment and turned to the side. "We begged the doctors . . . _'please, there's got to be a way'_ but the only option they gave us was that someone else with a healthy kidney had to offer one up. Out of nowhere, Sonomi-san, Tomoyo's mom, offered to give hers to my sister."

"People are able to live off of just one kidney," Yukito continued, still holding Tomoyo in his arms. As they told the story, Tomoyo began to cry even more. "So we thought that everything would be okay. Sonomi-san was a healthy person. So after the surgery, Sakura was in care at the hospital some days until the morning of Sonomi-san's birthday—two years ago today—where she was discharged and allowed to go home. It was the happiest days of our lives. Sakura was able to live and Sonomi-san was doing absolutely great! We were going to make it a surprise to little Sakura-chan that it was Sonomi's kidney that saved her after the birthday party. Oh she would've been excited, so thankful, and so happy to hear that. But . . . the day after Sonomi's birthday, she began to show signs of illness. A week later, she died in the morning as Tomoyo went to go check on her. We thought that her sickness was just because of the surgery—the usual small surgery sickness you get. But we didn't get diagnoses until after it was too late . . . until she died. Her body . . . for some reason just couldn't operate with one kidney. We should've called the doctor right away! But . . . we didn't."

The story was so sad. It was just sad. I almost had tears streaming down my face as well. I'm sure that if I was closer to these people and Tomoyo's mom, I'd be crying too. But I was heartbroken. My heart ached and I felt like I was being crushed by a mysterious hand inside of my chest. I almost fell to my knees, but I managed to hold myself up.

"And . . ." I started, "You guys decided to lie to her?"

"We decided to save her from all of the pain and torment that Sakura would've went through!" Touya yelled. His voice was uproar like he was standing his ground on a life and death matter. "Do you have any idea—_any idea_—about what my sister would've gone through if she found out that the one woman she saw as a mother _died_ because she chose to save her? She would be living a life of guilt!"

"But aren't you all living a life of guilt as well?" I yelled back. "Aren't you guys sad that Tomoyo's mom died saving her and you guys just ending up having to lie about it?"

"Of course we're SAD! Don't make it sound like we don't understand or _care_!" I could tell Touya felt weak on his knees because he looked like he was about to collapse from all of the yelling.

"Touya-san!" Tomoyo quickly ran under him and supported him.

"Of course we're sad, kid," Touya continued. His voice, this time, was calm but sad. "But because of Tomoyo's mom . . . my little sister is alive today. And I'm sure you know by now . . . by the end of next school year, she's supposed to die! She won't make it after that! We want her to live the best and happiest life possible . . . that's why we decided to lie to her . . . is that too much to ask?"

Is that too much to ask for? I asked myself that. Was it? Living a life of happiness . . . even if it meant living a life of lies. Not only lies, but it was dementing everyone else too. Yukito, Touya, Tomoyo . . . and who knows who else, Eriol? They were all living a lie, hurting themselves to keep one person happy. _Selfish_! I screamed in my head . . . but no . . . Sakura didn't even know . . . so it couldn't be selfish. What is this?

How does Tomoyo deal with this? This was her _mother_ we're talking about.

"Li-kun," I heard Tomoyo's voice. When I looked at her, she was in front of me and away from Touya. She had sheds of tears in her eyes but she wiped them away. "Are you thinking . . . why I'm not mad? Why I'm not mad or upset that because of Sakura-chan, my mother is gone? I hold no grudge against Sakura-chan at all. The decision wasn't forced upon my mother. She _chose_ to do what she did herself. It was also our fault that my momma died though because we didn't take her illness seriously until it was too late. Yes, Li-kun, I lost a mother . . . but because of that, I still have my closest friend. I don't like to think about if the trade-off was even or not because I don't like valuing another person's life over another . . . especially if it's people who are extremely close to me like Sakura-chan and my mother were."

"It should've been me though," began Touya. "It should've been _me_ to volunteer and give Sakura my kidney. But no . . . I was too young and stupid. I was too scared. I didn't even know what to do at the moment."

"No," said Touya, "Touya-san, please don't think like that . . . I told you . . ."

I looked away for a moment before picking up the toy I dropped earlier. Without saying a word, I made my way to the gravestone and knelt, placing the toy in front. One of the letters by the gravestone caught my eye and I picked it up. I opened it. Just as I thought, it was a letter from Sakura herself.

_Dear Sonomi-chan!_

_ Hi! How are you doing? I miss you, you know that? I hope you're doing great at expanding your toy company over in America. Don't worry, Tomoyo-chan and I were fine and dandy. We've done so much this past summer. I have so much to tell you but I'm actually kind of in a hurry so I can't really tell you everything that we did. But I think that if I did tell you everything that we did you'd be up all night reading haha! Well I really do miss you a lot. I hope you come back home and visit soon. And if you do, bring me back a toy! Next time I'll get you your favorite toy instead of writing you a letter, okay? Bye!_

_ -Love, Kinomoto Sakura!_

Marked last year, 2009. Her favorite toy huh? A Kamen Rider figurine. So the letter that Sakura wrote, and all of these birthday gifts were never really mailed to America . . . they were just put here.

"Li-kun, are you okay?" asked Tomoyo. Her voice soft and quiet.

When I got up, I stepped a few steps away from the stone. I looked into the faces of Touya, Yukito, and Tomoyo, wondering how could they be living like this? It must've been hard. But for them to, every day, keep their heads up, smile for Sakura . . . for _Sakura_ to even do that . . . how? I couldn't live like this. I already have a hard time living with myself and I can't even remember a single thing or reason of why I'm here and not in China!

"I'm sorry," I said. "I . . . I just need time to think about these things."

"Li-kun . . . I beg of you, please . . . _please_ keep this a secret from Sakura-chan. She can't know . . . please!"

Keep this from Sakura? How'd I get dragged into the fray? Now I have to live a lie as well? After going off about lying to Sakura about this whole situation, now I'm stuck having to lie as well? Why? Why me? I didn't want any of this. It's not right! Is it? Living a life of happiness, that's fine. But living a life of lies as well? Is it worth it? Is it right?

"Okay . . ." I said, "I won't tell her." I've just trapped myself within a life of lies. I looked up at the other three. "But _someone's_ going to have to tell her! Someone's going to have to tell her about this before . . . before it's too late for _her_."

No one replied. No one said a word. But I didn't expect them to.

**The Taste of Salt**

For once I didn't spend my night fixing my music box. But instead I spend my night lying on my bed thinking about everything that had happened. I replayed every single moment in the Grand Garden in my head. From the moment I entered to the moment I left—every single moment.

Sakura had problems with her kidney and was about to die. Tomoyo's mom saved her life by offering her own. Soon after, she died, and the truth was kept from Sakura so that Sakura could continue to live happy. So cruel . . . isn't that cruel?

Living the rest of your life as happiest as can be—literally a life of perfection; but also living a life of lies. Is that okay?


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary:** Eriol, a prodigy in the making who is always bullied; Syaoran, a transfer student from China with a troubled past and no friends; and Sakura, a beautiful girl full of nothing but optimism and always half full rather than half empty. As if life wasn't hard enough, when their lives intermingle and two boys fall for a girl, who's only supposed to live until her graduation . . . well, this is their story.

**a/n**: Hi! I had another question about my ellipses -_- haha! My ellipses are spacial ellipses (the . . . instead of ...) and are still grammatically correct! I've read some books (like the Eragon series) that use the kind of ellipses that I use and I guess I've just adapted to that. Well there's the answer for the ellipses question! Hope you enjoy this chapter and please review!

By: Shinigami 42-42-564's Friend

_Monday, October 11, 2010_

I spent afterschool laying on my usual bench in the school's courtyard which, again, resides in the middle of the U-shaped school. I was fiddling with my phone, trying to learn how to work it. Ever since I got it, I never really got the chance—or cared to—learn it until now. I didn't even know what my phone number was. The picture quality was pretty good, but the recording wasn't as good . . . was there even recording?

Throughout the weekend, I spent my Saturday and Sunday doing absolutely nothing. The thought of what happened on Friday just haunted me. I don't need to repeat the story, because if I did, I'd feel even sicker to my stomach. The thought of it was even worse than when my faded memories of that girl in the rain that I keep on having. But it was a faded memory, so that's probably why.

"Hey!" I heard and looked up from my phone. It was Sakura standing right in front of me with her school bag hanging in front of her. Her eyes glimmered a perfect emerald color in the sun. Her hair blew as the wind picked up for a quick second. "What are you doing here?" She asked.

"None of your business," I replied. "Aren't you going home?"

"I'm waiting for my brother to pick me up. He doesn't want me to walk home by myself anymore. Eriol-kun and Tomoyo-chan had to go do something today."

"Huh? But don't you walk to school by yourself?"

Sakura shook her head. "My brother woke up earlier today to walk me to school."

He woke up earlier to walk her here? I felt kind of bad actually. We started school pretty early, and to have him wake up just to walk back home right after sounded like it would take a toll on him.

"I told him that he shouldn't," Sakura continued, "since he works early in the morning too, but he insisted."

"Why don't you have Tomoyo or the kid to walk with you?"

Sakura laughed and said, "Unfortunately, they live quite a ways away. I don't want to hassle them too much."

I made a face and commented back with a simple, "Oh." I continued to fiddle with my phone.

"Hey!" Sakura suddenly yelled, "You have a phone!" Sakura then dug into her bag and pulled out a small pink flip-phone. Attached to it was a tiny plush toy. The plush toy was a bear-figured toy with white angel-like wings. "You should give me your number."

"What, why?" I asked.

"Oh, come on, don't be so lame. Besides, you don't have any friends, you won't be calling anyone anyway."

"Hey now!" I retorted. "No personal attacks!" Before I knew it, Sakura swiped my phone from me and turned away. "Hey!"

"Awee," Sakura said, "I was right, you really _don't_ have any friends!"

"It's a new phone!" I yelled.

After a few seconds, she gave back my phone, but left it at the contact screen. "There you go," she said. "My number's in it." I looked at my phone and saw a _Sakura_ listed in it. I sighed. Guess I had to have _someone's_ number in it eventually. I heard a buzz, but it wasn't coming from me. Quickly Sakura looked at her phone and then at me. "Oh, I have to go now. I'll see you tomorrow, Syaoran-kun!"

Sakura bolted off.

This girl sometimes makes me think about how weird people can be in this world. Or maybe since I'm the outsider from China, maybe I'm the weird one. I still sometimes think back to when I first got here and the weeks after. She accepted me into her life pretty fast. Was that what she always did? To think that someone who once told her to drop dead could . . . be so acquainted to her still.

**The Taste of Salt**

It was eleven at night. I tried to sleep. But for once, my sleep was interrupted by annoying buzzing rather than nightmares. When I woke up from my infuriating lack of sleep, I decided to finally check out what the buzzing noise was. Still droopy and unable to think straight, I waited for the next buzz. When I heard it, I felt dumb for not realizing that it was my phone on the drawer top next to my bed.

When I checked it, I had a missed message . . . a missed text message. No, not just _a_ missed text message, but many—from the one and only.

_Sakura (10:02): :O_

_Sakura (10:15): :DD_

_Sakura (10:18): D;_

_Sakura (10:20): Syaoran-kun!_

_Sakura (10:31): Are you asleep?_

_Sakura (10:45): Hey! /3_

_Sakura (10:56): I'm going to bite you in your dreams!_

_You (11:06): What?_

_Sakura (11:08): Ah, you're still awake :D !_

_You (11:10): Now I am._

_Sakura (11:11): Good :P_

_You (11:15): What do you want?_

_Sakura (11:17): Gyaw you're so boring, don't you know how to text? Add a face or something -.-'_

_You (11:20): Ugh. What do you want? : )_

_Sakura (11:23): That's not how you use a smiley -_-_

_You (11:27): Shouldn't you be asleep?_

_Sakura (11:30): Aha xD yeah. But my brother suddenly fell ill. He has a cold so I'm watching over him right now._

Bummer. Even though we didn't quite get acquainted to each other, I kind of felt bad inside. I didn't know much, but I'm sure that having to take care of Sakura every day. With that thought, it lead me to think about their parents. I still haven't seen them. Where were they? Most of all, how come Sakura and Touya never mentioned them?

_You (11:33): Oh . . . is he still going to walk you to school tomorrow?_

_Sakura (11:40): He wants to. I told him that he should just stay home. I'll be fine. But he doesn't wanna risk it._

_You (11:43): Tell him he's stupid he if thinks he's going out in that condition._

_Sakura (11:45): LOL! I already told him that actually :P but he insists._

_You (11:50): That blockhead. Fine I'll walk you tomorrow. Tell him to stay put._

_Sakura (11:53): Wait what!? No, you shouldn't, I don't wanna be a bother to you._

_You (11:58): Too late. It's late. I'll be there in the morning. Bye._

_Sakura (12:02): No, you really don't have to! But . . . goodnight, I guess._

**The Taste of Salt**

_Tuesday, October 12, 2010_

I started to regret saying that I'd walk Sakura to school. Why? It was raining. Not just raining, pouring every inch of the floor. There were no thunder or lightning, but for six in the morning, it looked more like eight at night. Luckily I had an umbrella though. I never really took a good scan of my apartment, but it seemed like whatever I needed, it was there. I honestly don't even know what most of my cupboards hold.

Another thing that made me kind of regret going to pick Sakura up was waking up earlier than what I would've usually had to. She across town, past the school itself from my house and walking that far while asleep didn't help.

I almost forgot how long it took to get to her house from mine. It took nearl forty minutes to go from my house to the mall so it wasn't It took almost an hour before I finally made it to her steps. Even with an umbrella, I was half wet and starting to itch like crazy. Luckily they had a small veil over the door so when Sakura opened the door for me; I wasn't being battered by rain.

"Syaoran-kun, you made it," said Sakura like she was surprised to see me. "Hold on, I'm almost ready."

She ran back into the house and scourged for her backpack. I thought about maybe stepping in for a minute, but I was soaked and didn't want to dirty the house. I saw Touya around come up from around the corner. When he saw me, he immediately gave me that old _death stare_ again. I guess it was better than giving me the"keep _it_ a secret" look. The secret . . .

When Sakura came back, she had slipped on a pink raincoat her own umbrella. "Okay, I'm ready," she said.

"Let's go then," I said back.

"Nothing funny, kid!" Touya yelled from the inside the house.

I face-palmed myself in my imagination. Can't believe he said that. "Don't worry," I muttered. "We'll be fine."

"You better—"

Before Touya could finish his sentence, Sakura slapped the door on him. She looked at me and smirked.

"Sorry about that," she mumbled.

"You know, I kind of chose a bad day to be here." I gestured the rain and Sakura pointed the obvious.

"Oh! You're all wet! If you want, I can get some of my brother—"

"That's not necessary," I stopped her.

She pouted. "Well you didn't have to be here!"

"I know," I said and started walking.

"H—hey, wait up!" Sakura opened up her umbrella and stumbled at the start but caught up within a few seconds. "T—thank you, Syaoran-kun.:

"Don't uhh . . . don't think too much of it," I said. "I guess just think of it as repayment for feeding me every day." Even though the rain was loud, I could hear Sakura giggling. "Just don't wait me up like that again. It was the first time I would've gotten a good sleep."

"Really?" asked Sakura after her giggle. "What do you usually do every night?"

I thought about that. Rebuilding the music box every night wasn't really the greatest thing to tell her. I wouldn't even know how to answer it if she asked what it was anyway.

"Nothing much," I ended up saying. The next thing I knew, Sakura had quickly bumped me from the side. I almost faltered and fell but caught myself. "Hey, what was that for?" I exclaimed.

Sakura stuck her small little tongue at me and said, "Liar. I don't like liars."

I turned away and grunted, "I'm not lying!"

Lies. I didn't want to think about it so soon, but the word _lies_ just pulled it all back to me: the moment with Tomoyo and the others at the _garden_. The entire story of what happened with her mom and Sakura flashed from beginning to end through me like a mental movie on fast-forwards. I wasn't sure if this shiver I got was because of the rain or because of _that_.

"Neh, I have a question," I asked solemnly.

Sakura turned to me, "Yeah, what is it?"

"What do you think about lies?"

Sakura looked at me like that was the weirdest question ever. Honestly I probably would've looked at me the same way. After a moment though, Sakura seemed to have been in deep thought about it.

"I think they're bad," she said.

"Bad?" I repeated.

Sakura looked at me again with a dumbfounded face. "Well, yeah. Of course; you shouldn't lie to anyone."

"But what if it's lying to keep someone else safe . . . or important?" This made Sakura give me an eye. She took a longer moment to think about it. I began to wonder if I was accidentally revealing _it_ and that maybe she was beginning to catch on. "I'm sorry, you don't have to answer that."

"No, it's okay," said Sakura. "Well I guess I can sort of understand that. You want someone to be happy no matter what and you don't want to tell them things that will accept them. But I think, eventually, someone will have to tell the truth . . . it's not good living a lie."

"Oh . . . that sounds good I guess."

"Why do you ask?"

Ah crap. I should've seen this one coming. Quickly I conjured up what I could without hesitating. "I uhh . . . I've known someone who was kind of in this situation. I just wanted to know your take so I can help out."

It was quiet for the next few seconds or so before Sakura followed up with, "Oh. Well I hope sooner or later, somebody tells that person you're talking about the truth then." Sakura turned to me and surprisingly smiled through the depressing topic. "Because I know that if I was that person, I would appreciate my friends for wanting to keep me happy, but at the same time, I would not want to live _too_ long knowing that my life was just full of lies. But! I trust my friends."

Trust. That word kind of stung me in the heart knowing what I knew. She was smiling through it all. She has no idea at all about the truth.

"I trust _you_ too, believe it or not," added Sakura.

"Hah? Me? Really?" That came out to quite a surprise actually. Sakura nodded in reply. "But even after . . . our _encounter_?"

"I know . . . it's crazy right? Telling me to _drop_ _dead_ isn't the best of experiences."

I swallowed kind of hard. I had a hard time conjuring the words _drop dead_ but she seemed to have said it simply without any problems.

"Y—yeah . . . sorry about that."

"You already apologized. Don't need to do it again."

"Don't you trust everyone?" I asked.

"Do you see me hang out with _everyone_?"

"I guess not . . ."

Sakura laughed. "It's complicated I guess. I'm not picky or anything . . . it's just complicated."

"I guess I'll leave it at that then."

It took us about twenty minutes to get to the school. We decided to take a bus for a little bit to stay away from the rain. When we arrived at the school's mudroom near the entrance, Eriol saw us, and might I say that he wasn't really pleased to see Sakura with me.

"Good morning, Eriol-kun," Sakura greeted.

"G—good—w—what are—good—_what are you doing with him_—I mean, good morning, Sakura-chan," muttered Eriol.

"Took you long enough," I said.

"Shut it! Why are you coming to school together?" Eriol exclaimed.

"I was walking her to school!" I yelled back, "What else?"

"S—Sakura-chan, how could you—I mean . . . I could've walked you to school!" Again, Eriol mumbled and stumbled on what he was saying.

Sakura seemed to have gotten a crack out of the asinine behavior that Eriol showed. "Oh don't worry about it, Eriol-kun. This was a very last minute thing. It wasn't my choice." Sakura turned to me with an odd look.

"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?" I retorted to her.

"Well, I'll see you boys at lunch!" Sakura then darted out and joined Tomoyo from the distance.

"What are you planning?" asked Eriol—jealousy in his voice.

I decided to play along with it and replied with, "Your demise, kid, your demise."

**The Taste of Salt**

When the lunch bell rang, the rain still poured with haste. I think it was actually raining a lot harder and the clouds made everything a lot darker. Honestly though, I didn't mind the rain. Aside from that horrid image of that girl that I kept having, I thought the rain was soothing, peaceful. It created an atmosphere for me.

For a little while, seeing Tomoyo gave me a small tension. But just like Tomoyo, she smiled through it all. I wasn't sure if she was actually happy when she smiled or just faking it. Regardless, if she had the strength to go through all of this with a lost mother, I shouldn't put more tension on it, so I ditched that garden moment out.

We couldn't eat outside—because of the rain—so Eriol and I ended up going to Sakura and Tomoyo's room for lunch. Again, Tomoyo brought me lunch and Sakura made a lot to feed all of us.

"Hey, guys," Eriol started. Usually Eriol wasn't the conversation starter, so it surprised me quite a bit. "My father owns a resort off the coast of Tomoeda Bay. He's going to America next week for research and he said that I could bring some friends to spend some time there at the resort next weekend if you guys would like.

Sakura couldn't help but to chime in on it. "You mean that island with the big house?" Eriol nodded. "No way! You never told me this!"

"My father doesn't like people knowing. But I managed to ask him into letting us use it for the weekend."

"Wow Eriol-kun," started Tomoyo. "Who would've known you had such a thing."

"Yeah, you don't really present yourself to have something as big as an island," I added.

"Shut it! You're not invited!" Eriol retorted.

"Why _you!_" I gave Eriol a quick head-butt to the nose. I could tell he was joking, but I just had the urge to hurt him.

"Oh boy, settle down," said Sakura just as Eriol was about to charge at me. "I'm sure we'll have lots of fun! I can't wait!"

Eriol took a few bites out of his lunch before redirecting his attention to his _resort_. "Alright then. We'll leave next Friday after school then. I'll give you guys more details later."

"Probably isn't as great of a resort as you say it is," I teased. Again, this got him irritated. I could tell he was holding back a fist.

Sakura laughed and said, "Syaoran-kun, have you seen it? It's a huge island right off the coach of the beach. You can't really swim to it, but you can take a boat. It has a _big_ house in the center of it!"

I cocked my head. "No, I haven't I guess."

"Are we allowed to bring extra people?" Tomoyo suggested.

Eriol looked like he was debating that. "Sure, the more the merrier; it's a _big_ place."

Sakura clapped her hands once and cheered. "I'm so excited, I can't wait!"

With that praise, Eriol drew a blush line. I guess he'd do whatever it took to make her happy huh? Of course, that's always the case when it came to Sakura. I wondered though: does he also know about Tomoyo's mom? I'd actually be surprised if he didn't.

**The Taste of Salt**

When school ended, outside was still dark and miserable. The rain continued; even though it wasn't as hard, it was constant heavy showers. I was near the front doors by the mud room dazing out to the rain. I sighed as Sakura came up behind me.

"Still raining," she said.

I followed up with, "Sadly."

Then a random Chiharu came up to Sakura's side. "Ou this isn't good."

"What's the matter, Chiharu-chan?" asked Sakura.

Chiharu kind of giggled before saying, "Well, you see, I got a ride this morning to school. So I didn't really need to use an umbrella. But my ride actually isn't coming because of work, so I kind of have to walk home now."

"R—really?" said Sakura.

"Here, take it," I said abruptly. Chiharu and Sakura both looked at me like they were surprised—like they didn't expect such _kindness_ from me. "What?"

"But, what about you?" Chiharu asked.

"What? We have another one. We'll just share it."

I heard a small shriek coming from Sakura, but I ignored it. I handed Chiharu the umbrella and she took it with a little bit of hesitation.

"T—thanks, Li-kun," she said. Chiharu flipped the umbrella open and held it over her head. "I'll be sure to give it back to you tomorrow!" After that, she dashed out into the dusked rain.

When I turned to Sakura, she looked frozen like she was shy about something.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

Sakura shook her head and said, "I-it's just that we'll be sharing . . . um . . . an umbrella, aha."

I cocked my head to the side, "and what's the big deal? If it bothers you that much, you don't have to use it."

"What does that mean?" She retorted.

"I was just kidding, sheesh. Let's go. I have a long journey home."

"_Wait!_" Suddenly Eriol came running at us. "Where's your umbrella?" He yelled. I honestly thought that the question was rhetorical.

"I gave it to Mihara-san, wh—"

Before I could say anything else, Eriol shoved an umbrella in between Sakura and I.

"Here! Take this one with you!" he said.

I wasn't sure who he was talking to, to be honest.

"N—no, Eriol-kun, what about you?" Sakura exclaimed.

"I don't need it!" Eriol snapped back, but he was snapping at me.

"You're crazy! You'll catch a cold, keep your umbrella!"

"Fine, then I'll walk you home!"

"Don't you have a president meet today with the other school presidents?"

This time Eriol sighed and dropped his head like he had forgotten all about it. "Ah . . . you're right . . ."

I kind of took a step back and watched as the two had been going at it about the umbrella. Was sharing an umbrella really that big of a deal? I really didn't get it. Things really are weird around here. The nimbus clouds were only making things darker and a walk to Sakura's house back to my house would take over an hour already; I was actually getting quite irritated.

"Hey guys, I don't want to ruin this quarrel here, but if you don't mind, I think we should get going."

Eriol sighed and eyed me with an evil intent. I was already used to being eyed like this, but this was seemed a little bit more evil than usual.

After a quick goodbye between Sakura and Eriol, Sakura slipped on her pink raincoat and unraveled her umbrella and held it over our heads.

"Here," I said reaching for the umbrella. "Let me hold it, I'm taller." I took the umbrella and held it over our heads. I figured since I was a bit taller, she didn't have to go through the trouble of wearing out her arm by holding it too high. As we got under the umbrella together and made our way to the gates, I had to ask, "What's the big deal with sharing an umbrella? Everyone seemed so hesitant about it."

Sakura laughed through the rain and smiled. "Oh yeah, I forgot; you're not from here."

"Nooo, really?" I muttered.

"It . . . just has a certain meaning to it, I guess."

_A certain meaning?_ "You guys take these weird things seriously."

"What was that?"

"Ah, nothing," I lied, clearing my throat.

"Hey, Syaoran-kun, can I ask you something?"

I looked at her for a second. Questions of what she could have possibly asked me scrolled through my head like a seven machine at the casinos. What could she possibly have interest in?

"You can have three questions," I said. "I'll answer them all truthfully."

Sakura smiled with delight. "Really?"

I nodded. "Yes, but now you're down to two."

"_What,_ why?"

"Because that was a question you just asked; now you're down to one."

"_What_, are you serious—" Sakura quickly covered her mouth with her hands and stopped herself from finishing the _question_. Darn, almost caught her.

As we approached a corner, I quickly turned from a walk to a run and completely ditched Sakura behind.

"S—Syaoran-kun! Come back!"

I turned the corner and came to a sudden stop. When Sakura turned the corner, she bumped into me, not knowing that I came to a sudden pause, and almost fell over, but I caught her by the arm just in came and pulled her back under the umbrella.

"What was that for?" she cried.

"I just wanted to see you soaked," I said with a little laugh. Mission failed though as she still had her raincoat on.

"Why you, meanie!" Sakura kicked a small—but deep—mud puddle and got my entire left leg wet.

"Ack, come on!"

"That's what you get!"

"Bah, let's get going again." I tried shaking off the wetness as we continued to walk, but it just seemed to only get wetter.

"Anyway," Sakura started, "as for my last question. I was just wondering: you said you came here because you had troubles back in China . . . what kind of trouble were you in?"

I looked at Sakura for a second before scrolling through some answers in my head. That was a tough one. I didn't expect her to ask _this_ question—though I probably should've seen it coming. I didn't have an answer. Or, I did, but I just didn't know it. But suddenly, that image of that girl stained in red, with heavy rain . . . it flashed in front of me again. The girl, who was she? I still didn't know. I felt weak in my legs and felt like collapsing. I could feel my breathing get harder and heavier but hopefully the rain disguised it from Sakura.

When I regained my thoughts, I found Sakura looking at me like she was kind of worried. Had I been acting strange the last couple of seconds?

"Are you okay?" I heard Sakura ask.

I came to a quick stop and shook my head vigorously. I took in a deep breath and blew it out before continuing on.

"Sorry," I said. "I actually . . . can't answer that." It wasn't because I didn't want to, it was because I didn't know the answer to it. But from the image that I kept seeing, I'm sure that if I did know, I probably wouldn't _want_ to tell her.

"Oh . . . I see."

I cleared my throat. "Don't worry about it though. Come on, let's get you home. I want to get out of this rain and back to _my_ home."

It took about twenty or so minutes, about the same as getting to school, to get back to her home. We reached up to her step and I declined her umbrella and tried giving it back to her.

"What are you doing?" she solemnly asked.

"Giving back your umbrella?"

"You're planning to walk all the way back home without an umbrella?"

"It's just rain."

Sakura pushed the umbrella back. "Use it until you get yours back."

"And if it still rains? What about you?"

She pinched her raincoat and flipped it up. "I have a raincoat; plus my brother has another umbrella if I need to use it."

I gave out a loud sigh and said, "Okay, fine. Guess I'll get going then."

As I tuned to leave, Sakura yelled out, "Be careful!" I didn't look back, but I did a backwards _goodbye wave_ and disappeared into the rain like how the anime folks did it.

**The Taste of Salt**

When I got home, after another hour-long walk, the first thing I wanted to do was jump on my bed and sleep. But the first thing I ended up doing was to take a shower and switched out into some dry cloths.

Immediately after that though, I fell on my bed and closed my eyes.

Just as I thought I was going to fall asleep, I heard a buzzing from my phone. I reached over to the small table dresser and unlocked it. Of course, it was a text message from Sakura.

_Sakura (8:58): Thank you, Syaoran-kun, for walking me tody. I really appreciate it : )_

_Sakura (8:58): Today*_

_Sakura (8:59: Onii-chan seems fine now, so you don't have to worry about tomorrow xD thanks again though, see you tomorrow!_

I was going to reply back, but I found myself blacked out and asleep from the lack of sleep the other day and long distant walking I had to do for the day.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary:** Eriol, a prodigy in the making who is always bullied; Syaoran, a transfer student from China with a troubled past and no friends; and Sakura, a beautiful girl full of nothing but optimism and always half full rather than half empty. As if life wasn't hard enough, when their lives intermingle and two boys fall for a girl, who's only supposed to live until her graduation . . . well, this is their story.

**a/n:** I did a little update on Chapter 8. I re-read it and realized I confused myself what grade they were in. It's nothing too important you'd have to go back on. Just accidentally indirectly mentioned that they were third years instead of second years—which they are.

But I hope you're all enjoying this story! What I'm trying to do with this story is to have everyone enjoy the story as a whole. Instead of leaving you with something amazing after every chapter, what I'm trying to do is create little things that will hopefully add up in the end of the story and when you finished, you'll have enjoyed the story as a whole and really feel what the characters have been through; the change, the growth, the relationships, all of that. So sorry if things might be going a bit slower for some of you readers, but I promise you'll really truly understand and feel the lives of these characters in the end.

That said, please enjoy! Don't forget to review!

By: Shinigami 42-42-564's Friend

_Friday, October 22, 2010_

Well today was the day; and to be honest, I was excited. It was the first time I've been excited actually too now that I think about it. The weekend that Eriol promised at his resort was no in progress.

After school that day, everyone went back to their houses to pack what they wanted for the weekend. I didn't pack much; just my phone, cloths, and bathroom necessities. I thought about bringing my thousand-piece music box, but I decided against it. If they saw me fiddling with that, it'd be weird. I left the house with a green shirt and khaki shorts.

The meeting spot was a boat dock. I didn't know where it was, so I met up with Tomoyo within a small downtown shopping district and we walked there together. It wasn't far, but the weather was a lot better than last week. The sun was out with no clouds, skies were blue, no humidity, and only a small breeze—perfect weather.

When we got to the dock, there were quite a few people there—some I hadn't expected actually. Parked floating next to the dock that Tomoyo pointed out to me was a rather large, luxuriously-built, boat. It wasn't _big_, but it could fit about ten people easily. The boat had a small retractable roof like a convertible car.

"Ah, you made it!" Sakura cried as we approached the dock. The girl had changed from her school uniform to a knee-long, white silk dress that was shoulder cut. She had black leggings and wore a sunhat.

"Well it's not like we planned this just a couple hours ago," I said sarcastically—mainly to Tomoyo as Sakura was still an earshot away.

Tomoyo, who had changed into a rather odd black blouse, laughed for a moment at my remark. She then proceeded to meet with Sakura further down the dock where the boat was parked. On the boat fiddling with the anchors was Eriol. Next to him was Yukito and Touya as well. I wasn't surprised to see Touya since Sakura was going, but I was surprised to see Yukito.

"Ah, Li-kun, you're coming too?" I heard a voice from behind me. It was a familiar voice, a girl voice, but I had trouble making it out until I turned. It was Chiharu approaching the dock with a guy next to her side.

"Well yeah," I started when they came up to me. "Of course—I mean, I should actually be asking _you_ that."

"Oh, this is Yamazaki Takashi. He's in my class too."

"Pleased to meet you, Li-kun," Yamazaki introduced.

The guy had dark hair, was quite tall and very skinny. He almost seemed like I twig. I thought maybe Chiharu had more fat on her than he did.

"Pleased to meet you, Yamazaki." I slowly said. After that Chiharu took a step forward and shoved her face in mine. It took me by surprise so I took half a step back.

"If he ever wants to tell you a story," Chiharu started, "run away, or you'll regret it."

I looked from her to him as I was questioning her statement. I didn't know the guy, but from the warning I got, I didn't want to. Slowly I nodded and proceeded to the boat.

"Everyone, get on board," Eriol called out.

Immediately, everyone was given a life-vest as everyone stepped in. I never really understood the use of a life-vest when you knew how to swim—and I knew how to swim.

When we departed, right away I saw where we were going and what Sakura and the others had told me about just last week. It was a rather larger island than I had anticipated. Even from where we were at, just off the shore, I would already see the giant resort that Eriol had. In front of it was its very own beach and around it was infested trees.

While gazing my way there, I thought about the rocking of the boat as it raced across the lake. I still don't remember much about my past and what led me to coming here to Japan, but for some reason I remembered that I loved the feel of a rocking boat—as odd as is sounds. Maybe it was the immense breeze that came with it or the dabbles and splashes of water you get that waft your face. I felt free; relieved of all stress.

I took a quick glance around at everyone; they all were smiling. This was the first time I've seen so many smiles so close together. It wasn't a smile for laughter and it also didn't seem to be a smile for happiness. What were they smiling about? Deep inside, I felt like smiling too though. I wanted to smile—but what's the reason for that? Did they feel the same way I did? Free?

I wanted to smile. But for some reason, I just couldn't.

**The Taste of Salt**

It took us ten breezy minutes to reach the shore of Eriol's island. From up close, it looked a lot bigger than what I had imagined before coming here. When we docked, the first thing past the dock was bright white sand that seemed almost flawless. No random shells or unidentified items sitting around. Past the sand was ground mixtures of solid clay dirt and grass that led up to wooden stairs that led up to a rather large balcony that led to the front door of Eriol's resort.

Wasn't that unique?

The resort was looked like it was two stories, but the stairs oddly led to the second story. I guessed that, that was the main floor. The windows on both floor seemed to cover nearly the entire side of the resort like it was the wall itself.

I was awed. I really was.

"Wow, Eriol-kun, it looks amazing!" Sakura cried as we reached the steps.

Eriol scratched his head and quietly laughed as if he was nervous. "Thanks."

"I can't wait to go swimming!"

Sakura rushed up the steps first as the rest followed. When we got in, the Eriol flashed the lights on and everything lit up. To the right was the kitchen; it had a large gas stove, next to it was a cutting corner and next to that was a double-door fridge with the freezer on the bottom. What amazed me most was the sink; the sink faced a large glass window so that whoever was doing the dishes could look outside into the beach.

On the opposite side of the kitchen was the dining area that easily made up a fourth of the main floor. The rest of the floor was the living room that had its very own fireplace. Around it was three long couches that could fit four people each. Outside of the couches was a pool table and a TV set.

"Well," Eriol started, "Let's settle down. Then we can go swimming."

It didn't take us long to settle down. The rooms where we slept in were downstairs. There was just enough for all of us to have our own rooms. I was actually quite surprised. Not every house has eight rooms. But then again, this is a resort. Sadly, however, there was only one bathroom down by the rooms. The other one was upstairs by the main area.

After about half an hour, everyone was already out on the beach. Me, however, I just wanted to relax so I spent my time lying on the couch. I liked the waters, the feel of the waves and the win, but for some reason, swimming just wasn't my thing at the moment.

I thought aimlessly about things that I didn't understand, things that were unrelated to me, and things that didn't make sense. Soon after, I found myself asleep—faster than I had anticipated.

**The Taste of Salt**

When I woke, I woke to the shaking of Sakura. Though my vision was still a blur, I could tell by the voice as it urged me to get up. When I focused, I sat up and said, "I'm up, I'm up."

"Come on, Syaoran-kun, it's time to eat," said Sakura.

"Already?" I mumbled. When I looked outside, it was already dark.

"You've been out for a while," replied Sakura and she joined the rest of the group at the dining table.

"Well that's surprising." I was hoping that it would just turn into a nap, but I guess not. One of those moments I suppose.

"Dinner's ready," she said.

"Who made it?"

"Eriol-kun and I did."

"Eriol?"

I was quite surprised to hear that Eriol cooked. That was one thing that I guess I never really knew about him. All I ever knew was he was the smartest kid in school that loved playing games. Now that I thought about it, that was a very odd combination of talents. Cooking, gaming, and being the number one student in our class.

Dinner was pasta and fried fish with black beans; another off combination, but can't disagree about the taste. Exquisite, might I say. The fish had the perfect mixture of herbs along with the sauce. Its aroma was almost priceless. The pasta, I'm sure Sakura made it. The soft angel-hair noodles just tasted like she made it. We didn't use red sauce, but we used a Japanese style alfredo sauce.

During the meal, Sakura rambled on about what she wanted to do next, like she planned to not sleep this entire weekend. Aside from Yukito, who was going along with Sakura with her plans to do for the weekend, everyone else was pretty quiet—but Sakura and Yukito made up for that. Eriol ate and smiled at Sakura and Yukito's conversation, Tomoyo laughed at every joke they spilled, and Touya seemed to almost not care about the conversation, like he was only there as a guard dog. Across the table, Chiharu and Yamazaki sat next to each other and seemed to be having their own conversation.

Touya caught me staring at him and gave me another one of those death stares. I turned quickly and started eating as if I did nothing.

About half an hour later everyone finished eating. We all were actually quite full before the food was done, but Sakura insisted that we stuffed as much as we could and finished it—this meant every scrap of meat on the bones of the fish.

By now the sky was dark; not completely dark, but navy blue skies with a moon that simmered the beach, which illuminated the sky.

"Now what do you got planned for us?" Touya muttered like he was bored.

"We can have a bonfire," Eriol replied. "There's a fire-pit right outside. The view of the beach is pretty and the lake is pretty good at night with the moon right above it."

"Great!" Sakura exclaimed. "Anyone know how to start one?"

"I can," Yukito smiled.

"And I can help too," Yamazaki started. "In fact, I have—"

"Shut it!" Before Yamazaki could finish, Chiharu had covered his mouth forcefully with her hands.

"You guys can go on ahead. I'll finish the dishes quickly," Eriol said.

I sighed and got up with my plate. "I guess I'll help too." Surprisingly there was no objection.

When the table cleared, everyone other man Eriol and I rushed outside into the dark. Within a few minutes, I saw a flicker of red, orange, and yellow just outside before the beach sand. It was the fire and I was surprised to see it up so fast. Everyone gathered on beach chairs and blankets and sat around it. I could see Sakura and Chiharu burning some marshmallows over the fire.

There was quite a bit of dishes to do. We agreed that Eriol would scrub and soap while I rinse and dry. I will admit though, it was really awkward being shoulder length away from Eriol washing dishes. Through the window in front of us I could see stars glowing madly. Sparks from the fire-pit rose and exploded away. The night was calm and quiet—the only sound was the sound of the friends by the fire playing around.

I balled my eyes to Eriol who I knew was staring out the window at Sakura while scrubbing the dishes. His eyes showed a melancholy and worry.

"So, Eriol," I started deciding to break the silence. "Why don't you just tell her?"

Eriol jerked his head back like he had just been snapped out of some sort of confusion. "Huh? What? What do you mean?"

I sighed. "You know what I mean. Why don't you tell her that you like her?"

"Who, Sakura-chan?"

"Well, yeah. Who else?"

"Ha! I'm not going to be doing that."

I made a face and was actually quite irritated at the answer. "Aw come on you big baby, why not? You honestly can't let something like this slide."

"That's none of your business."

"And why's that? You know if you like someone, you should tell them that."

"Yeah, thanks for the tip. I'm not dumb, I know that."

"Then what's the hold up, huh? You had the guts to stand up to two people who beat you up, but not confessing yourself? That's lame."

"Shut up!"

"Or else I'll tell her that _I_ like her." I added a little giggle at the end. This got Eriol frantic.

"What? You wouldn't—"

"I was just kidding. Damn, kid, chill out."

Eriol turned away and gave a low pout. He waited a few seconds and then turned back. "You don't . . . really . . . like her, do you?"

I made a face. "What, me? Of course not. Don't take me lightly, I was just playin' around. But I am serious about you telling her that you like her."

Again, Eriol turned away. But this time, as he turned back, he began to start a gaze on Sakura. The look on his face was somber as if he was thinking about something that was really important to him. After a moment, he sighed and said,

"Thing is . . . I already did."

This caught me off guard. I stopped rinsing for probably the longest minute of my life just trying to register what he said. He already confessed to Sakura? There was no way. The lifestyle they lived, the relationship they had, it just didn't seem to be the usual follow up after a confession. Since they're not going out, I'd assume that he got denied. After a denial though, a friendship usually isn't the same. So I was surprised to now know that they are still as close as they are.

"O—oh . . ." I mumbled—lost for wards. "I'm sorry then. When was this?"

"It was as first years last year. I did what anyone would do: I took her up to the school roof and told her that . . . I liked her." Eriol seemed to be quite depressed talking about this topic. I wanted to change the subject now but this was just too interesting. "I then asked her out, but of course, as you can see, things didn't turn out in my favor."

"What, people here in Japan take their confessions to the roofs of a school?" I muttered.

"Shut up you foreigner."

"Woah, personal attacks!"

"Sakura-chan and I were close friends before all of that . . . in fact we were childhood friends. My dad was really good friends with her dad. They taught at the same University for a long time."

"You know . . . now that you mentioned it, I was always wondering: where _are_ her parents?" Based on Eriol's subtle reaction, I could tell that this was a touchy subject.

"Sakura-chan's dad is working overseas in America."

"This isn't another lie like Tomoyo's mom now, is it?" I sputtered suddenly.

Eriol jerked back and looked at me with surprised eyes. Like he didn't know that I knew such a thing. "Oh . . . so you know about that."

I sighed. "Sadly. But what about her mom then?"

"Sakura-chan's mother . . . died when she was little."

Yet again another hard-struck event. I was speechless. Her mother was dead? Was Eriol being serious? Of course he was. It just seemed so unreal though. How could so many things happen around this one little girl? I remember Touya saying about how Tomoyo's mother was a mother figure to Sakura; but now to hear that her actual mother died? Regardless, I felt so sorry for Sakura. She has one too many losses already and to also know that she's also being lied to by the people she trusted most.

"Her mother," Eriol continued, "was said to have the same illnesses as Sakura-chan."

"What?"

"Of course, her life expectancy was supposed to be until she was nineteen—from what I've heard at least. But she ended up having Sakura-chan and didn't die until she was twenty-two; Sakura was almost three at the time, so she doesn't have much memories of her mother.

"Does she know about her mother at least?"

"As much as we all do."

"So then, her mom lived three years past the time she was projected to die . . . that means that—"

"Yeah, Sakura-chan could live longer. But we always have to prepare for the worse."

"I suppose that's true. So that's why she never talks about her parents . . . I suppose Touya's doing everything he can for her."

"Touya-san has _a lot_ on his shoulders. Being a friend of someone who's dying is one thing, but can you imagine if your baby sister, who's suffering from the same illness your mother did, is going to die just as she graduates, in little under a couple years?"

No, I couldn't. Though for some reason a part of me said that I've witnessed something quite close to me before. For a second, that same girl flashed in front of me again, but I shook it off rather quick.

"You know . . . when you told her that you liked her back then, did you just do that? Or did you actually tell how your entire feelings?" I decided to get away from the subject of her family and back to Eriol's feelings.

"What do you mean?"

"It's complicated I guess . . . I'm not sure how to explain things. But I guess what I'm saying is, you should give it another shot. But this time, if you haven't, really be thorough; don't just tell her you like her and ask her out. You have to consider her feelings, her situation . . . your guys' relationship as friend."

"Bah, that wouldn't work either way. Even if she did like me back—or anyone for that matter—she wouldn't want to be in a relationship. She doesn't want the thought of dying and leaving a loved one behind."

"Oh so you're saying that's the reason she rejected you."

"Shut up! Maybe she didn't have feelings for me too. But that's not what I'm saying, just think about it for yourself; would _you_ really want to date someone if you knew you were going to die and leave them behind eventually?"

"Apparently _you_ were willing to date someone and be left behind eventually?"

Eriol fell quiet. He bit his lips and tossed a piece of dish over to my side to rinse. "Truth is: we're all going to do that eventually. We're all going to die, leave someone behind, or be left behind one way or another. So what's so wrong about being with someone you really care about until then?"

This time I fell quiet for a little bit. Outside, the sky got darker, but the bonfire that they made was still bright and big. I could hear quiet laughter through the window and see Sakura and the others playing around with the fire.

"You really like this girl, don't you?" I said.

"Enough to set aside my happiness for hers; if she were to die unhappy, I wouldn't know what to do with myself; I'd consider myself a failure as a friend if I let that happen."

I sighed. These guys really are living one hell of a life. I didn't know what to make of it. Was this really the life they wanted? More or less, was this really the life that Sakura wanted? I felt like both sides of things, everyone was just living one sad, fake life. They think they're happy, but really, they're sad. True happiness. What is that? What does it take to have _true_ legit happiness in this situation?

"Ever consider that maybe her happiness is your happiness? Are . . . are _you_ even happy right now?" I asked Eriol.

Eriol just stared out the window. It was like he was in deep thought, pondering about himself. After a long minute, he slipped a dish over to me and said, "Come on, that's the last one; let's get down there with everyone."

I honestly didn't expect an answer. Actually, I didn't want one. I wasn't sure how to handle whether it was a yes or a no. When Eriol dried his hands and walked outside, I finished rinsing the last dish and did the same.

When I got to the group, everyone was sitting in a circle close together and close to the fire. Eriol found a spot next to Sakura and I found a spot next to Chiharu who was across the fire from Eriol and Sakura. Just as we got relaxed, Sakura quickly offered a fire-baked marshmallow to Eriol with a smile.

As the fire swayed back and forth, I caught glimpses of Eriol's face like picture frames being played and every time the fire would cover his face and reveal it, a new picture of Eriol would appear. The first face I saw from Eriol was a joyful face, but after that, it depressed. Even though he smiled and joked around with Sakura, it was like the fire in between us showed me what Eriol really felt.

For a quick second, the fire showed me the face of a sad Eriol. Not only sad, but a disappointed one, like he was a failure at something. But it wasn't just sorrow that I saw through the fire . . . but also madness. Was he mad? Was Eriol mad about something? I wasn't sure, but I know for sure that there was one thing the fire was telling me,

"Eriol," I quietly said to myself, making sure no one else heard me, "you're not happy, are you?"


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary:** Eriol, a prodigy in the making who is always bullied; Syaoran, a transfer student from China with a troubled past and no friends; and Sakura, a beautiful girl full of nothing but optimism and always half full rather than half empty. As if life wasn't hard enough, when their lives intermingle and two boys fall for a girl, who's only supposed to live until her graduation . . . well, this is their story.

**a/n: **Hello everybody. I hope you're enjoying the story so far :) I'm really happy about all of the favorites and follows that I have on this story and I'm not even near done with it yet ^^ Please review when you're done reading, I love reading all of them. Keep it up! And I'll keep it up as well!

By: Shinigami 42-42-564's Friend

_Friday, November 19, 2010_

November nineteenth two-thousand-ten; that was the first time we saw drops of snow. Actually, not just drops, that wasn't the right word, but a bombardment of snow. _Tomoeda is projected to have two to three inches of snow tomorrow_, said the weather analysts. That was so load of crap. There ended up being a bit over a foot of snow.

When I made my way down to the first floor rotunda of my _fancy_ apartment, I approached the front desk and asked the old guy running it if we were expecting any more snow for the weekend.

"It should stay about the same, Syaoran-sama," he said. His name was Wei and he was probably I would guess in his seventies. The man was old and wise and looked weak but I could tell he was as healthy as could be—especially if he chose to stand all day long. Yes, he _chose_ to stand all day long. He had his chair but never sat.

"Thanks a lot Wei," I muttered and began to head out.

"Have a good day."

Thankfully the front of the apartment and the sidewalks were shoveled. Waking up this early for school I didn't expect people to be up _earlier_ to get rid of the snow. But from the first glimpse of things, Tomoeda looks like it gathers about the same amount of snow that China does.

I've always enjoyed the snow. The cold never bothered me and I always loved the beauty of snow. I remember in China I always saw light of all colors everywhere. The snow on the ground gave a beautiful white glow that lit up even the darkest of nights in China.

"Syaoran-kun, good morning!"

The sound of that voice took me aback; it was Sakura. She stood in front of me with a light fur coat along with high boots and brown mittens. I looked behind her to see if anyone else was with her, but no one was; she was alone.

"G—good morning," I started. "I mean _what are you doing here_?" I rose my voice as I just suddenly remembered that her home was on the complete other side of Tomoeda _past_ the school already. There was absolutely no reason for her to even be passing by on her way to school.

Sakura smiled and giggled as if she expected my reaction. "I woke up early and came all the way here and this is the welcome I get?"

"Ha! What'd you expect? But no really, why _are_ you here?"

"To walk with you."

I paused for a moment. She answered my question, but at the same time she didn't. "Okay that doesn't really help me here."

"Think of this as a thanks for walking me to school back then."

"Hah? But _that_ was my thanks for—never mind, we're going to be late, come on let's go."

**The Taste of Salt**

I have to say, walking with Sakura was quite awkward this time around. Last time I walked her to school it was actually planned, but I didn't know if I should take this as _sweet_ or _creepy_. I checked my phone as we were walking and I didn't even receive a text about it. I told her that she could've at least texted me the night before.

"I actually didn't think about it until this morning when I woke up aha," was her response to me as we walked.

"You're really dense, aren't you?"

"Well I'm sorry for coming all this way!" This time Sakura raised her voice. "I chose a bad day too, my neighborhood isn't plowed yet."

"Since when did your brother let you start walking by yourself?"

"Just a few days ago," Sakura said and stuck out her tongue at me. Was this some kind of taunt? I didn't get it; maybe it was a Sakura thing.

"Stick that tongue out again, I dare you." Just as she did, I scuffed a hand full of snow from the side and balled her in the face.

"Why you—" Sakura stopped halfway in her words to cough out the snow that had gotten in her mouth. Poor girl, I almost felt bad, but it was quite funny. After she recovered, Sakura tried to chunk some snow at me, but I avoided them.

"You shouldn't be walking by yourself," I then said. "It's dangerous for you."

Sakura wiped off a small piece of snow from her mouth with her sleeve and eyed me. The look from her eyes was different than what she usually showed. Even though I only took a quick glimpse, I could tell that she looked at me with some sort of sad . . . but more irritating look.

"You don't have to treat me like that," she said after a long while with an aggravated tone.

I read the tone of her voice and swallowed hard. "S—sorry . . ." I said and turned away.

"It's okay. Neh, Syaoran-kun."

When I heard those low whispered, I turned back to Sakura, but regretted it entirely as my face was met with a giant pile of cold slush.

"Take _that!_" I heard from Sakura.

I shook off the snow and wiped my face with my sleeve. When I regained vision, Sakura was already up ahead of me.

"Come on, Syaoran-kun!" She yelled. "We're going to be late!"

I cursed and mumbled to myself. "This girl . . ." I grabbed a chunk of snow into my palms and started chasing her.

**The Taste of Salt**

When we got to the school, out faced were wet with snow and mud—I can assure you that. As hard and tiring as it was running in the cold all the way to school, I had to admit that I enjoyed it. The girl knows how to have fun.

But as we entered the school's front main doors past the gates, I heard a loud horrifying scream as if someone was being killed. The next thing I saw was an Eriol came running at us. I cuffed my ears and as he came up to Sakura and I his face was frozen with dismay.

"What, did you kill someone?" I said uncuffing my ears.

"Y—y—you and Sakura-chan . . . _why are you walking with her to school again!_"

"I don't know," I said. "Why don't you ask your highness herself? She's the one who came out of nowhere and appeared in front of my home."

Sakura giggled like she knew Eriol was going to go on a jealous rampant. "Aha, good morning, Eriol-kun."

"Whaaa! If you needed someone to walk you to school, you could've just ask me!" Eriol wailed.

"No, it's not like that."

"What? You mean you two are—"

"No!" I yelled. "It's not like that either!"

"I was just using this walk as a thank you for walking me to school a while ago, that's all." Sakura added a smile at the end. "That's all!"

Eriol fell quiet and stared at the two of us for quite a long time. I was about to ask what was wrong with him until he finally turned around and walked away without saying anything—to us at least. I heard him mumbling stuff, but I wasn't quite sure what they were. I sighed and turned to Sakura who was giggling to herself.

"Way to make him jealous," I said. "You're evil."

"What?" Sakura retorted. "It's not like I planned it!"

"Sure, whatever" I muttered and proceeded to change my shoes from my locker in the mudroom.

In the mudroom, which was in between the school's entrance and the school's first lobby, there were fifteen sets of lockets. Mine was in the middle so I always had to count from one side over. Sakura's was actually right behind mine on the other set of lockers.

"Well," I said after switching shoes. "I'll see you at lunch then."

**The Taste of Salt**

This was just another usual boring day of school. Because of the snow, the four of us had to eat indoors instead of setting up a picnic like we always did outside in the courtyard. Luckily though, the school day ended fast.

At the end of the day, Tomoyo decided to walk Sakura back home. The face on Eriol when he found out that I wasn't walking with Sakura was a priceless one. It's like his life had just been saved from an eternal gloom of darkness.

It was a Friday so I didn't quite want to go home yet. This made me accompany Eriol back to the arcade that he loved so much. The walk there was quiet though. When I told him that I was going to follow him to the arcade, he merely gave me an "okay" and that was that. No retaliation, no nothing from him. Even as we got there, he jumped exchanged his bills for coins and started playing random games.

The arcade was big, and as expected on a Friday, was full of students from all over Tomoeda. I could tell because everyone around my age had different uniforms on. I exchanged a small bill of mine for gaming coins as well and played a shooter game. Sad to say I wasn't as good as Eriol in them. Even though everyone around us was enjoying themselves and being loud, Eriol was still quiet . . . very quiet. Was something wrong with him?

"Hey, kid," someone said from behind us. We turned to see a boy our age with his buddy right next to him. Based on his uniform, I could tell he wasn't from our school. "You're Eriol, right?"

Huh? They knew Eriol?

"What of it?" Eriol said.

"I heard you're the best arcade racer here. How about a race?" The guy sounded very tough. He was a lean guy with dark black hair. His face didn't show any innocence though, but rather a face that showed eager and determination. His buddy, on the other hand, was kind of short and scrawny. He looked like he could be beaten up in a fight to someone like Eriol.

Eriol took a moment before answering. "I guess so. Sure."

"Since you're considered the best, how about a wager? The loser hand over their ID Card."

This proposition got Eriol to jump quite a bit. The ID Card was the Initial D card. The card was like a memory card for consoles, where the user would insert the card into the arcade game and build their record and vehicles through matches.

"What? No! I'm not going to do that, are you crazy?" Eriol retorted.

"What?" The other guy exclaimed. "What, the great Eriol is afraid he's gonna lose or something?"

"That's not the point!" Eriol turned away. "Come on Syaoran, let's go."

"Looks like he's afraid of losing," said the scrawny guy. "He's no match for you anyway."

"Yeah," the bigger guy said. "It would've been a waste of my time anyway. That guys' a wimp."

Suddenly, just as fast as he turned away, he turned back. "What did you say?"

"Aw come on, Eriol," I started. "You seriously can't fall for something like that." But it was too late, he was already provoked. I guess when it came to being bullied; he'd always back down and just take the hit. But Tomoyo and Sakura were right: when it came to games, Eriol wasn't going to back down. I sighed as they found their seats in the Initial D game and started their race.

I went over to Eriol's side and watched from over the shoulder. I had a bad feeling about this, but Eriol was king, he would just win and we'd be on our way.

The two inserted their coins, then their cards, and then chose their vehicles. The next thing was choice of map and they both agreed on the hardest map. The map looked surprisingly familiar though. It took me a couple seconds, but I remembered it as the map of the final race in the third installment of Fast and Furious, Tokyo Drift. I wasn't really into cars, so I can't say if I enjoyed the movie or not when it played in China.

"Let's hurry this up," said Eriol.

"Right," said the other guy. "I want that card of yours."

The race began.

**The Taste of Salt**

At the end of that race . . . Eriol lost. Immediately after he lost, Eriol ran out of the arcade. I had to chase him down.

"Eriol, wait!" I yelled as he crossed an intersection. The light turned red, but since there were no cars, I bolted through. For a nerd, Eriol was quite fast—through the snow especially. I tried guessing where he was trying to run off to, but I couldn't. I just didn't know Tomoeda enough to even have a thought of where maybe he was going. I thought maybe he was heading home, but his home was in another direction.

After another minute of chasing him, I found myself back at _the_ park—Penguin Park. This time though, I manage to catch up to him. Just as we passed the giant penguin that was the icon of the park, I reach out and got a hold of his hood, and then pulled and tackled him to the ground.

"What on _Earth_ is wrong with you?" I screamed. That was then I noticed liquid running from his eyes. It wasn't snow—no—it was tears. "Eriol . . . are you . . . crying?"

Eriol wiped the tears from his eyes with his sleeve and said, "So what?" His voice broke up because of the tears. "Just leave me alone. Go home!"

I sat up straight as Eriol seemed to have struggled to get up. "Eriol, it was just a game, come on! You honestly can't be crying about losing _one_ game."

Eriol fell silent. He didn't keep eye contact with me and only looked at the snow. "Shut up . . . you don't understand." His tone of voice was quiet and brusque. Suddenly, it seemed as if his sadness had a mixture of anger in it.

I grabbed a handful of snow and chucked a snowball at him right in the face. "What are you talking about? It was _just_ a card; you can always get another one!"

Before I could even react, Eriol furiously wiped the snow off his face and scraped a chunk of snow at me. I turned to the side so it only got one side of my face, but this chunk of snow he threw at me had some ice in it and man did it sting.

"Shut up! It wasn't _just_ a card; it was my escape from this hellhole!" Eriol screamed.

This time, I fell quiet. Hellhole? What was he talking about? Slowly, Eriol got up, and I followed on after.

"Games," Eriol began. This time tears were streaming non-stop from his eyes. "They were the only thing I was ever good at. Being the person that gets bullied in school for such a long time, I always used gaming as my escape from reality. There, in games, I was king! Especially at that game, Initial D. I've been building my record and that card up for years! So you see? It's like it was a part of me! It was what saves me when I need it! I use it not only for fun, but to get rid of my hate, my anger! Being bullied, even Sakura-cha—"

Eriol stopped himself from trying to finish, but I had already caught his last word. Sakura? "What . . . what do you mean? You . . . you hate her?"

"Forget what I said," Eriol quickly said and started to walk away.

"Hey now, stop right there!" I exclaimed. "Eriol . . . you're really not happy, are you?" I thought Eriol was walking away, but he instead just walked to a swing, wiped the snow off it, and sat there. I followed and stood next to him.

After about a minute, Eriol wiped the last bit of tears he had in him and took in a deep breath, trying to recover from crying. "Don't be a fool," was the next thing he said. "Of course I don't hate her . . . but sometimes she gets me angry."

Makes him angry? That almost made no sense to me at all.

"Do you two . . . get into fights a lot or something?" I asked. "If so that's just basic relationship and friendship stuff so get over it."

Eriol shook his head. "No, it's nothing like that. You know you can tell how much someone means to you by how happy they are around you, right?"

I didn't know where he was getting at, but I agreed and said, "Yeah, I know that. Of course."

"But you know . . . how sad someone gets over you is also a sign of how much you mean to them."

It was a weird way to think about it, but I suppose he was right. When you find someone you really enjoy being with, they make you really happy. But if that person ever dies, you become so struck, so heartbroken, and the way you show affection towards them isn't laughing or smiling anymore . . . it's crying and wishing that they'd come back.

"I can see what you mean," I said. "But . . . I still don't get what you're trying to get at about her."

"I remember, twice—once before I confessed to Sakura-chan, and another shortly after—where she collapsed and had to be rush to the hospital. Both times, she never woke up until the day after; and both times, I sat by her bed crying, crying, and crying!" Eriol took a hold onto the rings of the swing and squeezed hard. "I thought I'd lost her both those times . . . I didn't want to lose her."

"I'm sure those moments were horrifying moments for everyone," I said.

"When she woke up those two times, I was the first thing that she saw. All she did was smile, laugh, and thanked me for being there for her."

I took the story in a well as I could. "Okay, but I still don't get what you're trying to say."

"I remember I had a couple incidents after that last one. Once time I got into a car accident; another time, I got beat up behind the school—both times I had to be rushed to the hospital. I was actually unconscious after the car accident. Both times, Sakura-chan came that night to the hospital to visit me. But . . . she came with a smile. It may not make sense, and it may sound selfish, but a smile? When she was in the hospital near the brink of death, I was balling my eyes out! And when it comes to me being hurt, I can't even get an _Eriol-kun, are you alright?_"

I understood now. He was trying to see if Sakura cared for him as much as he did for her in a different kind of way. It's kind of like when you're in a relationship; you don't always want to be the person to call or text first. It'd be nice if it were the other way around every once in a while. Eriol just wanted the same feedback from Sakura that he gives to her.

"As you can tell though," Eriol continued. "Sakura doesn't have _time_ to be sad. No matter the circumstance, she always stays happy. Even if things are bad, she'll find a way to look at the bright side and stay happy. I've known Sakura-chan for as long as I can remember and to tell you the truth, I've never once seen her cry or seriously sad. It's like . . . I could die, go away from this world, and she'd still find a way to look at some sort of happy side."

"Hey now that's a little bit too far!" I retorted. "Look, I understand you completely and where you're coming from, but to say that she wouldn't be upset over you dying is . . . that's just wrong! You should never be thinking about that!"

"I know. I understand that. And I know that Sakura-chan can't afford to be feeling sad because of her illness. She needs to stay strong and happy as much as she can before . . . well, you know."

The conversation died for a couple minutes. Eriol began to slowly swing himself and I brushed off the swing next to him and took a seat.

"Well, you know," I started. "It may not be _crying for you_, but there are times where she gets very protective of you. Like the time we first met and I stepped on your piece of paper. She yelled at me for just a piece of paper, like, sheesh, really?"

For the first time today, Eriol laughed. It was as if he never cried and we were just having fun conversations. "Oh yeah, that's her alright. We've had plenty of moments like that together."

"I haven't known you guys for that long, but trust me; she _does_ care about you, a lot. She spends more time with you and has known you more and longer than anyone else. Losing you, I know for sure, would leave a dent in her."

I expected maybe another giggle or clumsy reply from Eriol right away, but he said nothing. Instead he kept quiet and it was like the aura around us changed; and it wasn't a good change too. I felt chills that weren't from the cold and I could tell that Eriol was thinking really hard about something. Just as the conversation had started to lighten up, I could feel it begin to get heavy again.

"Hey, Syaoran," Eriol began, taking a long pause before continuing. "I'm moving."


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary:** Eriol, a prodigy in the making who is always bullied; Syaoran, a transfer student from China with a troubled past and no friends; and Sakura, a beautiful girl full of nothing but optimism and always half full rather than half empty. As if life wasn't hard enough, when their lives intermingle and two boys fall for a girl, who's only supposed to live until her graduation . . . well, this is their story.

**a/n: **This chapter is a bit shorter than usual because this chapter was actually going to be posted along with the previous chapter, but I decided to separate this chapter onto its own. Hope you all enjoy : ) !

By: Shinigami 42-42-564's Friend

_Friday, November 19, 2010_

Eriol was moving? I wasn't sure if I should be surprised or saddened; maybe happy? Nah. But it was a sudden shock. I never saw this coming. He seemed to in love with Tomoeda that it all just sounded like a big fat lie. That's right, it was a lie and he wasn't moving. He was just messing with me like how I usually messed with him, that's all.

"Good one," I said. But Eriol never replied. Instead he just stared at the snow under our feet. "Bad one," I said this time. "You're not serious, are you?"

Eriol looked at me and said, "I am."

"Well, not far right? Just to another city maybe? Nothing a train or a subway can't handle—"

"I'm moving to America."

My eyes bulged and my heart jumped for a quick second. Suddenly the snow and cold around me didn't feel as cold as it used to and it took me a few seconds to register exactly what he had said. Now for sure, this time, Eriol was just joking. He wouldn't go to America. That was just a ridiculous thing.

"_Good_ one," I said again.

"I'm not lying!" Eriol exclaimed. "I'm really moving to America!"

The tone of his voice said everything. I couldn't lie myself out of what I was hearing. "B—but why? And when?"

Eriol took a deep breath and waited for about a minute before answering. I assumed that he took that minute to gather up the story that he needed to.

"My father's a researcher . . . and he was just offered a big job over in America about a week ago. He decided to accept it and he begins next summer. So . . . we'll be leaving after the school year ends. I'll be finishing up my last year of school in America."

"But you'll be back right? After you finish school there?" I said with what little hope I had. But when Eriol glowered, I knew the answer already.

"About a month after I confessed and asked Sakura-chan out, we had a talk—a heart to heart talk. Until that day, everything was actually an awkward thing. You know, the usual, ask a good friend out and when you get rejected, things aren't really the same anymore. But when we talked, I told her that I wanted to become a doctor. I told her that I wanted to become a doctor so that I could find out what was wrong with her and save her from her illness. But . . ."

To be honest, the _but_ part of the story scared me. It was like he was going to say something drastic, so I gripped the rings of the swing and prepared for it.

"Sakura-chan said that . . . I shouldn't focus on her . . ."

"What do you mean?"

"She said, '_It's already too late for me. By the time you figure out what's wrong with me, I'll probably not even be here anymore._' And then she started to cry." Eriol paused and added a little laugh, which surprised me because the story seemed too sad. "Can you believe that I was crying too?"

"Well," I started, "I wouldn't believe it you _weren't_ crying to be honest."

"Well . . . I felt like I got rejected once again. I wanted to save her, but she didn't want to be saved. But I was just stubborn. If the doctors now can't even figure out what was wrong with her, who's to say that I will anytime soon too? But anyways, when we continued to talk, Sakura-chan asked me to promise her something: '_I want you to promise me though . . . that once you become a doctor, I want you to find out what's wrong with me and help everyone else who's like me! I'm sure my momma and I aren't the only ones who've been through this. You can't save me—but you can save other people and make them happy, and that, Eriol-kun, will make me the happiest girl ever.'"_

"She really said that?" I asked. The story that Eriol told was quite sad; especially that one line, _You can't save me_. That right there was a heartbreaker. After everything that Eriol's been through, after knowing each other since they were little kids, not being able to save her is just . . . it just wasn't fair.

"She did. And so that's why after I graduate over in America, I'm going to enter their medical field. Maybe pinpoint neurology."

"Medicine . . . neurology . . . being a doctor is a long-term thing."

"I know," said Eriol. "But I'm going to keep my promise to Sakura-chan. I _will_ find out what's wrong and I _will_ keep her promise and save others."

The amount of energy he put into that in his depressed state really made me happy. Usually I didn't feel happy for him a lot, but anyone who has the passion to help others is really someone amazing in my book. Eriol, you're amazing. I wonder if Sakura ever thought of him like that. A nerd he may be, but I felt like he was definitely going to be a world changer one day.

After a short moment Eriol lowered his head and things suddenly felt like they had depressed once again. As I stared at the ground below him, I thought I saw a raindrop from the sky. But it was too cold for rain, so the raindrop on the snow below us couldn't have been rain. When I looked at Eriol's face, I saw massive tears, even worse than before.

"D—do you know what that m—means, Syaoran?" Eriol asked. His voice cracked up and huffed due to his tears; that moment when you're crying so hard that you couldn't even talk. I thought about what he was trying to say, trying to come up with an answer for what he asked, but I just couldn't figure out what he was trying to get at. "That means . . . once I move to America . . . I'm never going to see Sakura-chan ever again."

I was lost for words. Why didn't I think about that earlier? I was so dumb. It's hard to believe it, but it was true. Once Eriol moves and pursues his medical career in America, it'll be too late by the time he finishes and comes back to Japan. Sakura . . . by then . . . would be gone. This just wasn't fair. This world just wasn't fair. Why are good people surrounded by obstacles? Why do people who don't deserve any bad have people that they care about being ripped away from them?

I bit my teeth hard, almost grinding them. I was mad—mad at life itself. It's like they were born into this world to suffer. It's like they were born into this world without a purpose, without anything to live for.

"When," I started after calming myself, "When are you going to tell her?" was all I could say. There was no cheering anyone up from a situation like this.

"I don't know," was his reply. "I will soon, but I don't know yet."

"I'm sorry," I said. "I know you're hurt, I know you're sad, but I just don't know what to do. I don't have a relationship with anyone like you do with her. So I don't know how it feels exactly."

"It's okay," said Eriol. This time he was beginning to recover from his crying. "But Syaoran . . . can you do something for me?"

"I can try."

"If you stay here for that long, can you . . . watch over Sakura-chan for me?"

"If I'm here for that long, I'll try." I honestly didn't know what my future would hold. Because I don't remember my past, I couldn't really plan that far ahead. Also, watching over Sakura? That seemed like a big task. I wasn't quite sure what Eriol even meant by that.

"Next school year will be when she'll be at her worst."

"What? How do you know"?

"Based on what I've heard about her mother; Sakura-chan's body will start to give up on her. She might not be able to walk, she might not be able to eat . . . she might not even be able to talk! The closer she gets to her proposed last breath; she'll begin to get sick. This time though, when she gets sick, it'll be worse than normal. A cold will turn into a fever and a fever will turn into something even worse. Slowly . . . her body will shut down."

Her body will shut down. Everything that Eriol just said, especially that last line, was very,_ very_ scary. That was a lot to put up with. I don't know how anyone could even go through something like that.

"The symptoms," Eriol continued, "could be consistent or it could be on and off—but just like how it is now, there won't be any warning signs."

Eriol was already sacrificing—no—losing so much. I took a deep breath and breathed it out. "Don't worry about it. I'll be right next to her no matter what happens!"

Slowly a small smile crossed Eriol's face. "Will you really?"

"But one thing though."

"What?"

"Would it be okay if I ever asked her out?" To be honest, I kind of felt like I had to lighten the mood . . . even if it did kind of ruin the moment.

Eriol suddenly pushed my face and said, "Oh please. Like she'll ever go out with the likes of you anyway."

Once I recovered and settled with a small laugh, I came back with, "Oh, so you're saying it _would_ be okay then?"

"That's not what I'm saying!" Eriol screamed. Looks like he was out of his depressed mood now. "I was on a serious matter here; don't make a joke out of it—" Before Eriol could finish his voice began to ring. Quickly he picked it up from his pocket and looked at the screen for a second. "It's Tomoyo-chan," he said with surprise and answered it. After about fifteen seconds of answering the phone he hung up and quickly got off his swing seat. "It's Sakura-chan, she's I the hospital, let's go!"

"W—what?" I didn't even have time to ask him why. By the time I got off my swing, Eriol was already bolting towards the direction hospital.

**The Taste of Salt**

We sprinted the entire way to the hospital. A couple times we almost got into an accident running across a red light downtown; all I remember from that though were shrieking brakes and drivers cursing at us as we fled across the road. It took us a good twenty minutes or so to get there. I wasn't sure if I had sprinted for the entire twenty minutes—it seemed impossible—but the adrenaline in me really didn't seem to care. I was actually afraid that my own body would be breaking down before I even knew it, but I had to keep up with Eriol.

When we got to the hospital, Eriol immediately spotted Tomoyo and Touya in the lobby. We used whatever energy we had left and ran up to them, panting and exhaling our lungs out as we got to them.

"W—where is she?" Eriol said trying to catch his breath.

Tomoyo, who was half crying, pointed down the hallway. Eriol and I followed her point and saw that she was pointing at the emergency room. The giant _ER_ above the double-doors glowed bright neon red.

"The ER?" I said. "What happened?"

"When she got home," Touya started, "she started to have trouble breathing. Suddenly, she collapsed and her pulse became weaker."

My heart pounded. Going to the nurse's office at school was one thing, but suddenly going into the ER? That was another.

It took about half an hour or so for Sakura's team of doctors and nurses to come out of the ER and wheel her into a room. Right away as we saw this, we all rushed up to the closest doctor who was with her.

"How is she?" Touya exclaimed as we approached a male doctor.

The doctor took a big sigh before saying, "She's fine for now. She's stable . . ."

"But?" Touya said as if he expected more from the doctor.

"But we don't know what happened or what was happening to her. That's why it took so long to calm her down. It's like her body just decided to slow down her heart. But as of right now, she's fine. She's still drugged so she's sleeping right now. You all can go in and see her, but she won't be waking up until the morning at least."

Before another moment passed, the four of us rushed into the room Sakura was put in. Just as we entered the room the rest of the doctors left. Eriol and Tomoyo quickly ran to the bedsides as Touya and I stayed at the foot of the bed. Sakura was fast asleep and breathing easily. She had wires and tubes all around her body and her veins that were hooked up to monitors.

"Sakura-chan, are you there?" Eriol whispered.

"Oh Sakura-chan," said Tomoyo with concern. But Sakura never replied. She only slept.

"I can't believe that she's like this," I said nearly half shocked. Eriol always told me about this, about this happening to Sakura, but to actually see her like this in person in an actual hospital just felt so different. And to think that this was supposed to happen on a regular basis eventually? How cruel.

"We always have to prepare for the worse," said Touya. "Every single day, even though she may seem fine . . . it only takes one day."

"Sakura-chan," Eriol began. "Why did this have to happen now? Why now? You were doing so great this year. You've only had one small incident so far until now. Why did you have to be so sick now all of a sudden? It's just not fair! I actually thought that maybe, just maybe this year would be the year that you go without having any problems . . ."

**The Taste of Salt**

Two hours. Two whole hours was how long we stayed in her room without moving. Tomoyo and Eriol stayed by her bedside and Touya and I stayed by her feet. All I did during those two hours was stare at the sleeping face of Sakura. She slept peacefully, but at the same time, with all of those wires connected to her, it looked so painful. Eriol and Tomoyo continued to cry on and off. Eriol, though she couldn't hear, started and continued to tell stories of their past. Tomoyo couldn't help but to cry and laugh at certain parts. It was depressing seeing them go through this. It was like they were saying their last goodbyes to Sakura.

For the last hour of the two, Touya actually fell asleep on the chair behind us. He seemed exhausted when I first saw him here at the hospital, so I didn't dare to try and wake up him.

Even though the shares were covering the window, I could tell that it was already dark. Of course, with winter now here, it got dark a lot faster.

"Hey, umm guys," I started. Tomoyo and Eriol looked at me. "I don't want to be rude but . . . I think I have to start heading out."

Tomoyo shook her head and said, "Oh no, Li-kun, don't feel like you have to stay. In fact, I'll be leaving momentarily as well. What about you, Eriol-kun?"

"I'm going to stay here a bit longer. Since it's Friday, I don't have to worry about king up."

After saying my goodbye, and leaving Touya fast asleep, I headed out of the hospital and back home.

When I got home, I threw my bag and coat onto the kitchen table and fell onto the couch in my living room. I didn't want to deal with my glass box at the moment. Usually I'd force myself to do the usual, but I just didn't feel like it.

The only thing I could think about was Sakura. But just her, but Tomoyo and Eriol as well—especially Eriol. After replaying his story about Eriol always being by her bedside at the hospitals, I realized that this incident now was no different. Not only did he stay by her side while she slept in a hospital bed, but he cried . . . when he said that he cried next to her those other two times, I didn't think he'd cry this much, but for nearly a couple hours, the cries from Tomoyo and Eriol kept going.

Sakura must've meant that much to them. I felt upset really. I felt upset because I've only known them for about a few months. I wanted to feel the way they did, but I just couldn't. I just didn't have the relationship with them that they did for each other.

Now it got me thinking about the promise that I made to Eriol. Was that even possible now? Something like watching over her is something only _close_ friends could do. Could I . . . really pull something like that off?

_You (9:49pm): How're you feeling? Whenever you get this . . . I guess :)_

_Sakura (6:12am): Loser, that's not how you use a smiley xD but I'm doing fine now, ty :D_


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary:** Eriol, a prodigy in the making who is always bullied; Syaoran, a transfer student from China with a troubled past and no friends; and Sakura, a beautiful girl full of nothing but optimism and always half full rather than half empty. As if life wasn't hard enough, when their lives intermingle and two boys fall for a girl, who's only supposed to live until her graduation . . . well, this is their story.

**a/n: **ENJOY! Hope you had a wonderful July 4th and J4 weekend :)!

By: Shinigami 42-42-564's Friend

_Saturday, November 20, 2010_

I didn't receive her reply text until the next morning when I woke up around noon. Usually my body wakes itself up around ten without an alarm clock but for some reason it decided to take another couple hours of rest.

After I got up though, I spun a scarf around my neck and threw on my jacket—skipping the shower—and headed straight for the hospital. My hair was a bit messy but I honestly couldn't care less. Instead of wasting time being bored at home, I decided to spend my time visiting Sakura. It couldn't hurt and it was something to do. Who knows, the others will probably be there too.

When I got to the hospital, I made my way up to her room, and to my surprise, there was no one there besides Sakura herself who was reading a novelty book.

I knocked on the door before stepping any further into the room. "Hey," I said.

"Syaoran-kun, you're here!" she exclaimed and put the book down.

"Enjoying your read?"

"I wish; it's just a time killer, really."

"You're not really reading it, are you?"

Sakura tossed the book to her feet and sighed, "Hey, it was _something_ to look at okay!"

We both shared a laugh.

"So what happened?" I decided to ask.

Sakura took a moment to ponder things. For a second I thought that she would try to change the subject, but she surprisingly didn't.

She forced a small innocent giggle like she had just accidentally done something she was ashamed of.

"I was just cooking and . . . I guess I started having trouble breathing and collapsed."

"That's all?"

Sakura nodded and said, "Well, yeah. These things happen suddenly sometimes. It's actually rare that I have some sort of attack before I black out."

"When I got your text . . . it was quite early. I mean—six in the morning."

Sakura giggled and said, "Oh yeah. I had to wake up. Eriol-kun was snoring way too loud."

"What? Eriol was still here?" I exclaimed. "Man, that kid. He was here since last night. When did he leave?"

"Just a couple hours ago."

That Eriol. He sure did care for her a lot.

"So now what?"

"Well," Sakura put a finger on her lips. "I _am_ pretty hungry and this hospital food isn't the best."

I glowered. "Hey now, I'm not your slave okay?"

"I could use some WcDonalds!"

"WcDonalds? Ah . . . okay, fine."

Sakura put her hand together and said, "Thank you, Syaoran-kun. I am forever in your dept!"

I breathed a long sigh. I came here to visit and now suddenly I'm off to run an errand. On the other hand, it's been a while since I've had some WcDonalds, so I guess it couldn't hurt to get myself some too.

"Where's the closest one?"

**The Taste of Salt**

When I went there, my jaws dropped as I was greeted by familiar voice. Her light brown hair, her clamoring aura every time I see her, it couldn't be, but it was.

"How many jobs do you have?" I exclaimed at Chiharu.

"Ah, Li-kun, welcome to WcDonalds!" she said back.

"Don't you work at the other place already?"

"What, can't a girl have two jobs?"

"You must really not have a life, do you?"

Chiharu pouted and slammed her fists on the table. "I do too! It's just a matter of fact that I need a little bit more money to do what I enjoy doing."

"Really? I can't wait to see what these things are and why they require you to have two jobs."

"Anyway Li-kun, you're holding up the line, what can I get you?"

"Ah . . ." Now that I thought of it. I never even asked what Sakura wanted. "Hold on a minute." I stepped out of line and pulled out my phone and called Sakura. "Hello? Yeah, what did you want again? I am _not_ getting you that much food! Ugh, okay. Pig." I turned back to Chiharu who had just finished ringing up a customer.

"So?" She said. "What would you like?"

"Man she can be a pig."

"She?" Chiharu repeated. "Oh! Are you ordering for Sakura-chan? I heard about what happened to her, is she okay?"

I nodded. "Yeah, she'll be fine for now I suppose."

"Send her my regards, okay? Oh, by the way, you two have been together a lot lately, there's nothing going on between you two, is there?" Chiharu sent out a smirk as if she _wished_ there was something going on.

"Oh, please. Now you're just crazy." I said.

Chiharu turned away and pouted. "Then you can take your order elsewhere."

"No, hey I was just kidding!"

**The Taste of Salt**

To my own surprise, I ended up staying at the hospital with Sakura a lot longer than I had anticipated. Too long for my taste actually as it was almost nine at night already. And I thought Eriol was crazy for staying so long last night. I was also surprised that no one else had come to visit her while I was here; not Tomoyo, her brother, or even Eriol for that fact. But she was on her phone texting quite a bit so I assumed that she was talking to them.

As the sky grew dark, I noticed that the view we had from her window was quite beautiful. Since the hospital was just on the outskirts of the downtown square, we were able to see all of the lights down by the market—a pretty sight and a sight that I never quite got to see here on Tomoeda. Even though I lived on the higher floors of my apartment, my view wasn't quite the best. I saw lights of downtown but they were merely specs.

"You know, Syaoran-kun, you can go home," said Sakura after we've stretched a ten minute moment of silence.

I glowered. I heard the words that she said, but I didn't register them fully for a moment. When I looked up at Sakura, she gave me a look as if she was worried that I might've been sick. Then all I could think about was her health. Seeing her in a hospital gown, in a hospital bed, in a hospital, for some reason I began having a stabbing feeling in my side. I reached to see if I had a bruise or anything, but I didn't.

"It's okay," I said.

"Syaoran-kun, are you okay?" she asked with a worried voice.

I nodded. "Yeah, don't worry about me." I reassured things with a small giggle. "But hey, you've been inside all day long. Want to take a breather outside?"

"But I'm not allowed to leave the hospital until morning."

"Don't worry, we won't leave the hospital."

Thankfully she was able to walk just fine as we made our way up to the roof of the hospital. The wind blew hard when we first encountered the night sky at its highest but it quickly died down to just a subtle breeze—and a relaxing one too. We made our way towards the edge of the roof and facing the downtown lights. The clouds were lost and an ocean of stars lit up the sky.

"It's beautiful!" Sakura exclaimed.

Seeing a smile crossing her face gave me a bit of joy. I don't know why exactly, but it felt nice seeing her free of distress in a moment of distress. Her hospital gown actually looked like it turned into a beautiful white dress in the wind. After staring at her for so long, it made me think about my conversation with Eriol back at the park yesterday. It made me think about every single thing Eriol had said. About his relationship with Sakura, how he asked her out and got rejected, how she makes him angry at times without even knowing it, about him moving and the promise that he made to her, and about . . . about him asking me to take care of her while he was gone.

I thought about how much the two mean to each other and about how Sakura would've felt if Eriol left—added the fact that she would never see him again. Would she be sad? That's a stupid question. Of course she would be sad . . . I guess the question is . . . would she show it? Would she tell Eriol how much she'd miss him? Would she cry for him? Is that too much to ask? Is that a selfish thing to ask for? I know, after talking with him, that that's what he wants to see. Just once—before he won't be able to see her ever again. It was a selfish reason, a selfish want, but I understood where he was coming from. He wants to see her tears for him like she sees his; he wants to see how much she cares for him just like how he does it. Then when you think about it though, who was more selfish, Eriol for wanting this sort of reaction from Sakura, or Sakura for wanting to hide her own feelings for her own benefit?

Another thought entered my mind: Eriol's request to take care of her. Is that something I can really do? What if I have to go back to China? What then? I started to doubt myself of the responsibilities. Why me? Why not Tomoyo, or her brother? What if something happens to her and I don't know what to do? All of these question that kept popping up in my head. I was scared of them . . . no, I guess I was scared of having someone's life hang in my hands.

Could I really do it?

"-kun."

" . . . ran-kun."

"Syaoran-kun . . . Syaoran-kun . . . _Syaoran-kun!_"

I jerked my head back and suddenly it felt like a vacuum of air wind out of my head. I was thinking to myself so hard and so loud that suddenly things seemed quiet. The breeze still blew softly through my hair, drying up all the sweat that I had suddenly built up. I threw my weight against the railing and gave a loud sigh.

"S—sorry," I said. "I was just thinking about stuff."

"About what?" asked Sakura.

I forced and laugh and said, "Don't worry about it, aha." I wanted to avoid the subject. "But it feels nice out here, doesn't it?"

Sakura nodded. "It does. Thanks for taking me up here."

"I hope we don't get in trouble."

"If we do, I'm going to collapse and say that you were trying to kidnap me."

"What?" I exclaimed. "Oh you better not!"

Sakura giggled and leaned on the railing next to me. "You know, everyone's going to be starting to prepare for the winter festival now."

"When is it?"

"It's in December. A little bit before Christmas."

"What? They plan for something that far ahead?"

"Of course," Sakura nodded. "Not only is it only once a year, it's the biggest and most beautiful festival Tomoeda has! They build a Christmas tree as tall as buildings in the center of the Tomoeda District! Even after the festival the tree stays there until winter is over."

"Sounds like fun," I said. "I look forward to it."

"I couldn't go last year though," said Sakura.

"Hm, why?"

"I got sick and had to miss out on the festival. I was so mad!"

"Well hopefully you don't get sick this time around!"

Sakura stared at me like I had just jinxed it. Her evil glare said nothing but _'you better hope I don't'_. "Promise me something."

"Hey, what? What's this all of a sudden?"

Sakura laughed for a moment and said, "Promise me this: you'll take me to the festival, even if I get sick."

My throat dropped and I swallowed hard. What kind of promise is that? There was no way I could do that. I would've been endangering her life if I did!

"Now hold on," I started. "What did you just say?"

"I said: _Promise me that you'll take me to the festival even if I get sick_." Sakura repeated.

"I—I can't just do that!" I exclaimed in my defense. "What if you're bed sick and can't move?"

"Then you carry me there! Or drag me, I don't care! I want to see it for at least a day!"

"Okay, now you're just being a selfish kid. Do you have any idea how dangerous that is?"

Sakura quickly turned away and immediately I could tell that the mood and atmosphere had changed. "Then I'll just go there myself if I get sick."

"H—hey now don't' be so reckless!" I exclaimed. "Y—you won't be sick. Trust me."

Sakura slowly turned back to me with a solemner face. "You know, Syaoran-kun . . . you're different from everyone else . . . that's what I like about you."

"What? What do you mean?"

"Aha . . . I'll tell you some other time." Sakura sunk down into her arms as she leaned against the railing and just gaped out into the lights. A lot of stuff must've been going through her mind; though I didn't quite know how much or what was it she was thinking about, I was sure that they were affecting her. Just her aggressive request of wanting to see the festival no matter what made it sound like she was desperate . . . or maybe she is. What if . . . just what if this could be her last chance to see it? I thought back to what Eriol said about her and about how she would be next year. Her condition would worsen and maybe it'll be even harder for her to attend the festival if she does get sick.

What if she knows that herself as well? What if all she wanted was to take full advantage of this year? What's worse: Staying safe and not being able to see this festival, or going even though she's on the brink of . . .

I shook my head. All I kept doing was think about the negative, think about the bad stuff that could happen. It's like the more I think about the bad stuff, I feel like the more likely it'll happen. Sakura, on the other hand, was always the think positive type of girl—like Eriol says. It's gotten her this far too.

I gave out a loud and long unwanted and regretful sigh. "Alright, fine. I'll take you even if you're sick." That got Sakura's attention quickly and a smile quickly raced across her face. "But . . . you'll be just fine. I promise you that."

"Yay!" Sakura jumped with her hands in the air and then suddenly she jumped onto me and wrung her arms around my neck. "Thank you!" I almost collapsed but managed to hold her weight. For a little girl she sure squeezed hard.

The hug relieved me though. I think, for the first time that I've noticed, I was able to make her happy. Even though it was a cool night, she was warm, and the warmth from her warmed me. Suddenly I felt different, I couldn't tell what exactly had changed, but I felt a lot lighter, and my stomach began to feel weak and ticklish like something was floating inside.

It took me a couple seconds to snap out of my thought process and impulsively, but slowly, hug her back—though not as tightly as she hung onto me because she was nearly choking me to death now.

About another second later, I heard the squeals of an opening door and turned to the side towards the rooftop door. There, standing in front it the door was Eriol.

"E—Eriol?" I said.

Sakura let go of me and was just as surprised to see him. "Eriol-kun, you're here!" She yelled.

Sakura sounded excited to see Eriol. Sadly though, based on his facial expression under the stars, it wasn't the same for him. He looked daunted, shocked, like he couldn't believe his eyes or something. Usually whenever he saw Sakura and I together, he would just make a jealous fit, but this was different. This had the presence of something that wasn't needed. I felt a sour taste in my mouth and immediately I felt like things weren't going to go as smoothly as they should have.

"Oh," he said quietly. "I'm sorry." Slowly, he turned and left back through the roof door.

"W—wait, Eriol-kun?" Sakura exclaimed and took a few steps forward like she was going to go after him.

"Eriol!" I yelled after him.

There was a small basket of cherry blossom flowers spilled on the floor where he had stood before running away.


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary:** Eriol, a prodigy in the making who is always bullied; Syaoran, a transfer student from China with a troubled past and no friends; and Sakura, a beautiful girl full of nothing but optimism and always half full rather than half empty. As if life wasn't hard enough, when their lives intermingle and two boys fall for a girl, who's only supposed to live until her graduation . . . well, this is their story.

**a/n: **The Taste of Salt chapter 14 is now up : ) please enjoy and review what you think so far!

By: Shinigami 42-42-564's Friend

_Saturday, December 3, 2010_

_Sakura (9:00pm): Nope, nothing._

_You (9:03pm): He's been dragging this for too long already. I've really had enough of this._

_Sakura (9:05pm): . I know! Buuut I guess we can't do anything but to let him do his own thing._

_You (9:10pm): You try calling or texting him?_

_Sakura (9:15pm): What do you think!? :/ of course I have!_

_You (9:16pm): Okay, sheesh. Didn't mean to burst your bubble._

_Sakura (9:17pm): -_-' no it's fine. He's been like this before so it's kinda normal. He'll be himself again soon._

_You (9:25pm): You mean he's been like this before? Wow you're mean._

_Sakura (9:28pm): WTF!? :O Those moments when he's like this has nothing to do with me!_

_Sakura (9:28pm): Sorta -_-'_

_You (9:30pm): Aha so you are a jerk! Jk. So you two get like this sometimes?_

_Sakura (9:31pm): Yeahhh /3 stupid little things. But two weeks is a little bit of a stretch . . ._

_You (9:39pm): Sheesh, you two argue like a married couple sometimes._

**The Taste of Salt**

_Sunday, December 4, 2010_

But two weeks.

For two weeks Eriol has been quiet and avoided Sakura and I. Sakura's tried to approach him at school, but he just kind of shuts her down. He never replies to any texts she sends him or answer her calls; and even though he sits in front of me in class, he just pretends that I'm not there. After about the first week or so, Sakura and I decided to try and let him be.

It was weird though. He wouldn't ever eat lunch with us anymore at school and he was still talking to Tomoyo. Whenever _we_ would talk to Tomoyo about Eriol, she would always say that Eriol never mentions the two of us—much less Sakura herself. I kind of thought that, that was a bit shocking since he usually never shuts up about Sakura.

Even though Sakura never really mentions it in person or shows any sadness whenever Eriol just walks pass her, I could tell that there's a little dagger that stabs her right in the heart wishing that he would notice her.

It all started with him just seeing the two of us sharing a simple, innocent—and I'll admit, surprising—hug. I didn't really think it was such a big deal, but I guess Eriol had thought differently.

"Li-kun?"

Suddenly things around me got cold and the scenery got brighter. When I came out of my thoughts, I came to a sudden realization that I wasn't at home, but rather at Tomoeda's downtown square. It took me a while, but when I came back to reality I remembered that I was here with Tomoyo because today was the day everyone, volunteers from all over Tomoeda, came to help decorate and set up for the winter festival that Sakura had mentioned a couple weeks ago.

"Yeah, I'm here," I said to Tomoyo. "Sorry."

Winter now was the usual winter. Snow was still in the ground but the area had been plowed for the festival. Temperatures had dropped around single digits, and though cold, I wore _lots_ of layers. A large coat over a hoodie over a sweatshirt over a long sleeve over a t-shirt over a muscle shirt; with a pair of thin cotton gloves and a scarf as well. The only thing that didn't keep me warm was my jeans. I wore ear muffs but they sometimes made me ears itch so I hung them behind my neck under my scarf.

Tomoyo, on the other hand, wire a light brown beanie, had a scarf around her neck, and a rather thin jacket. Surprisingly she wore long leggings with boots. I thought she'd be cold but it seemed as if the cold had no phased her one bit.

"Do you want to set up the booths or help with the Christmas tree?" Tomoyo asked.

"Umm . . . I don't know—aren't you a little cold? It's freezing out here," I said. When I looked around, everybody—nearly almost a hundred people or so—were walking around and setting things up like it was a seventy degree day out. "I can't believe everyone here can stand the cold like this."

"I thought you were a freeze baby?" Tomoyo said crossing her arms.

"I am! I'm not saying I'm cold, I'm saying aren't _you_ cold?"

Tomoyo giggled and shrugged. "I guess I'm fine."

I sighed. A couple minutes later after debating on what we should help on, a guy with a rather large heavy leather coat came up to us and said,

"You two here to help?"

"Yes," I said. "We are."

"I'm one of the coordinators for this festival. It's great to have you two help. We can use all we can get."

Tomoyo politely bowed and said, "It's a pleasure."

"The booths are easy. People can set them up themselves. But we could use more help on the tree."

"Sure," I said. "But just how big is the tree that you'd need so many helpers?"

"Oh-ho are you new to Tomoeda? It's about forty feet or so."

"Forty feet?" I retorted almost not believing it.

"Making it tall is the easy part. But doing the branches and decorating is another story."

"Ahh . . . I see."

"Syaoran-kun, Tomoyo-chan!" A voice that lifted my chest made me turn behind me. There, about ten feet back, stood Sakura and Touya. Sakura wore a pink coat with what looked like some sort of green shorts under. But like Tomoyo, she had black leggings and I just wondered how they dealt with the cold.

"Sakura-chan, you made it!" Tomoyo exclaimed.

"Ha, a little cold isn't going to bother me!"

"Touya-san, you're here too!"

Touya turned away like he didn't want to be here. "Well someone had to watch her."

Sakura pouted like she didn't want to be treated like a kid.

"Also, Yukito said that he was going to—oh, there he is."

Just like that, Yukito came up to us from the side with a big smile on his face. His white skin was so mixed in with the snow that I had a hard time seeing him. The only thing that helped me was the fact that he wore black winter attire.

"Why hello there everyone," he greeted.

"Yukito-san!" Sakura cried.

"Hello Sakura-chan, it's nice to meet you again. Are we all ready to build this festival?"

Sakura nodded and then turned to me. "Syaoran-kun," she said. For some reason though, when she said my name, I felt a little bit different—a little uneasiness I guess. My chest lifted again and my stomach felt kind of queasy. When I looked at her, the smile she put on her face looked somewhat different, even though it was the same . . . it looked a lot prettier. it warmed me inside.

"Y—yeah?" I muttered.

"Let's have fun today," she said with a brightened smile.

I nodded. "Yeah, lets."

**The Taste of Salt**

About half an hour later into building up this festival, the amount of volunteer workers grew. It went from just over a hundred people to a few hundred; and you don't realize how big this market area is until you've walked around with a few hundred people and still are able to run around without bumping into people. And the tree, from a bird's eye view, easily took up a good chunk of the festival ground as well.

There were about forty of us working on the tree. Just like the man said: putting the tree up was the easy part. All it was is a long forty foot thick metal stick with a weighted base. The hard part was putting the branches on it. We started from the top down and each foot had its own row of branches that we had to assemble and then spread. Just like the usual Christmas tree, the lower the tree, the more branches it took.

I wasn't much of a big fan of ladders, but I was one of the people that had to climb up and take one side of the tree on the higher part of it—the thirty fifth row out of the forty to be exact and down from there. From there, after I spread the branches, move down to the next as they handed me a branch from below. The annoying part was the lower I got, the more I had to move because the more widely the tree got. I would have to climb down the ladder just so they could move the ladder back just so I can climb back up; annoying.

For being so cold, inside of all of these layers I had, I was sweating like a mad man.

Finally on the last row of branches, about eight feet from the base, we had to actually go inside the tree to stick them in, and once I was inside, I felt like I was in a jungle. Everywhere I looked, nothing but fake pine needles sticking into me. It was like I was a miniature human wandering around the bottom of a large tree.

Once I hooked mine onto the rod, I heard rustles to the side of me like someone was struggling to get theirs in.

"Hey, you need some help?" I suggested. When I ducked my way through the base of the tree, I found someone trying to lift his branch up. "Here, let me—" When I went to assist him and raised the branch up, it shocked me to see that the person I was helping was actually none other than Eriol himself. "E—Eriol! You're here helping the festival?"

The two of us held the branch for a few seconds and stared at each other before putting the branch in its place.

"Oh . . ." Eriol said. "Hey." He then began to spread the branches like I wasn't even here. Instead of leaving, I decided to stay and help him.

"You know," I started as we were spreading the branches. "She's here. Maybe you should go talk to her."

Eriol stopped what he was doing and stood silent. I kept silent myself, just waiting for him to say something in response to me. I felt a bad vibe though, just like how I felt about him for the past couple weeks.

"Just stay away from me," he said.

Disturbed was probably the best word to describe how I felt right now. I felt a little bit of anger as well, but more so disturbed. Usually I'd be fine with what he said, but this one felt like he's holding a grudge against me and has been for the past couple weeks.

"W—what are you talking about? Why? Come on, Eriol, stop this."

"I said stay away from me," I blurted again. This time he turned and exited the base of the tree.

"H—hey, Eriol, wait!" I walked after him.

When I exited the tree, the sun blared down at me once again and I started to feel even hotter under my layers. My vision was blurred as my pupils probably had to dilate like they do when you wake up because being under the tree was pretty dark. When they focused, I found Eriol already walking away.

"Hey, Erio—" Before I finished, Sakura had approached Eriol and stopped him in his tracks; now it was just them two staring at each other.

My vibe didn't change though. I still felt like something bad was going to happen; like Eriol wasn't going to do or say what we would hope for.

"Hi . . . Eriol-kun," said Sakura with a soft voice. She said it like she was scared though—scared of _him_. "I didn't know you were going to be here." She continued. She waited for a reply from Eriol but nothing happened. For what seemed like minutes but was probably only about ten seconds they stood there not doing a thing and not saying a thing. Just when I was about to walk up to them, Sakura had started to reach for his hand. "Eriol-kun—"

"I have to go," said Eriol with a stern voice not even letting Sakura finish. He pushed pass Sakura's hand and walked around her and started walking away.

My heart jumped and my fists clenched. I couldn't believe what I just saw. Sakura didn't even bother trying to turn around and stop him; instead, it was like she was frozen, still in the motion of trying to reach for Eriol's hand. Her eyes though . . . her eyes were something I've never seen before. Her eyes said mad, her eyes said hate, her eyes said sorrow, her eyes said confusion, but most of all her eyes said . . . her eyes said help.

Sakura suddenly dropped her hands and hung them to the side. Seconds later she dropped to her knees.

"Hey!" I called running up to her just in time to catch her before fully collapsed to the floor. "Are you okay? What's wrong?" She didn't say anything. She didn't do anything—not even breathe. "_Eriol!_ Help!" I called out to him. He stopped. A glimmer of hope filled me. But that's all he did. Eriol turned his head to the side like he was trying to look back as far as he could without turning his body. He froze there for a couple seconds before turning forward and walking away. "_Eriol!_" Sakura came to breathe again but it was like she was struggling to catch her breath.

I was in rage. He didn't come back. Sakura collapsed again and he didn't come back—he didn't even turn back! He just walked away like nothing happened, like he didn't know us, like he didn't care. He just left us . . . he just left _her_! I was so infuriated that I wanted to run up to him and tackle him to the ground once again, but I couldn't leave Sakura.

"Somebody?" I yelled. "I need he—" Before I could finish, Sakura covered my mouth with her mitted hand.

"It's okay," she said and got up to her knees. "I faked it."

My eyes widened. A part of me was relaxed that she actually wasn't hurt, but another part of me was pondering her horrifying actions. "W—what? But why?"

Sakura turned away and looked like she was about to cry. "Whenever I collapse . . . Eriol-kun is always the first to run to my aid. But I guess . . . I guess . . . I guess it didn't work."

So it was all just a trick; her plan to see if Eriol would care and run to her like he always used to.

But he didn't.

"H—hey . . ." I started but couldn't finish off what I wanted to say—mainly because I didn't know what to say. What should I say now? What could I say? "I—"

"It's okay!" Sakura said with a sudden bit of cheery in her voice. She smiled—an obviously forced one—and stood back up to her feet brushing off little debris of snow on her leggings. "I'm getting kind of cold though, so I think my brother and I will head back home. I'll see you back at school, Syaoran-kun." After that, she darted off past me.

As she ran past me, I felt a wet spec at the corner of my mouth. Impulsively, I licked it thinking it was a snowflake. But it wasn't a snowflake. It wasn't snowing and the taste of that white spec tasted like . . . tasted like salt. A wet salty taste; so it couldn't have been a snowflake or a raindrop.

I still stayed on my knees, refusing to believe what I just saw. I refused to recognize that had just happened. Eriol just completely ignoring Sakura like that . . . what if Sakura wasn't faking it? What if she was actually sick and needed help? He would've just left . . . he would've just . . . left her hurting.

Not only that though, but Sakura just putting on a smile and acting like nothing had happened. Why would she do that? Why? Wasn't she just hurting herself in the end? Wasn't she just hurting herself on the inside? I don't get it. Why didn't she try to do anything? Why didn't she say more?

Finally I decided to get up to my feet, but I didn't move from my spot. I only hung my arms to my side and hung my head back and stared at the bright sky.

What just happened?

I clenched my fists again and snapped my head back up. "Eriol," I hissed to myself and started running after him.


End file.
